It’s 9 p.m. on Sunday night and you have a paper due in 12 hours that you haven’t started. Sound familiar?

Chances are you were too busy on your phone, computer, or video game system to do the work and all you’ll end up doing is lowering your grade.

Technology has made great strides to help students, but the recent surge in social media technology has created a monster that is too big for students to control (or share on Facebook).

A University of New Hampshire study of over 1400 students found that 96 percent of students used Facebook on a typical day, and the results are likely to show similarly across other countries in the U.S.

Almost all students are on social media or at least using technology for entertainment nowadays. These distractions are definitely more addicting than just watching T.V. like your parents used to do.

These new distractions are also way easier to access, with games, video, and chatting tools all right there in your lap, how can one refuse the urge to slack off instead of studying for midterms?

It’s possible to curb a technology addiction, but it’s difficult, especially given that the problem didn’t even exist 15 years ago

Students didn’t worry about their profiles or timelines or notifications or anything like that, they would worry about the important things, like school and working.

While it has become easier to work on homework, it’s become harder to focus on that work, and that’s not even mentioning how dangerous social media is for someone attending college to use.

Students love to share everything they do, and unfortunately that also includes the bad things.

Students of the past could go crazy, party, and do other college things without the prying eyes of the internet watching them. Now, any move made can be broadcast to everyone online with only a few taps of a screen.

Students use social media to connect to friends, family, and colleagues, but these are the same people who can see when you are tagged doing things that fall into the NSFW (not suitable for work) category.

Underage drinking is the most common offense seen in my experience, which not only is NSFW, but oh by the way is illegal.

Students can be arrested for such acts way more easily than before with social media linking people to crimes faster than ever before. That selfie you took with the beer in your hand can get you 100 likes on Instagram but it can also get you thrown in jail.

Posting such nonsense is also a red flag to anyone looking to hire you for work. Employers are now using social media to conduct background checks on employees, making it vital to hold off on posting your “weekend in Vegas album”.

Social media is so prevalent now that it’s impossible to avoid, and it can be beneficial, but we must be conscious of how much time we spend on it and especially with what we share to the world because rest assured, they are watching.