Homecoming, Morp, Prom: huge staples in American teenage culture, responsible for movie climaxes and memories that people cherish for the rest of their lives. But those three events that once brought us together have turned into a burden. The likely culprit is social media, the overlord that has rewired our basic thoughts and actions by flooding immense peer pressure into our nervous system. Over the course of the past decade, as social media has grown its roots into all of our minds, the excitement of school dances has wilted away.

School dances were originally meant to be social activities to interact with our classmates; however, over the past decade, there has been a steady decline in student attendance at these social events. For many decades, kids genuinely looked forward to these thrilling nights that often proved to be the highlights of their school year. You’d be considered a freak if you asked someone to a dance back then by means of a poster.

Things took a turn as the 90’s rolled around. Hip hop made its way into everyone’s headphones and instant messaging provided a way to interact with classmates without leaving your home or even dialing a number. Social media had yet to be invented, and buying posterboard from Target in order to deliver your big ask was still considered abnormal.

The first decade of the 2000’s saw the rise of posting online, for which we can thank Facebook. Constantly checking social media is scientifically proven to lower our self-esteem and spike our anxiety. Along with the ability to see what other people are doing without leaving our bedroom. Kids became more nervous to go because they feared someone would post something of them online. Accordingly, attendance at school dances saw a sharp decline.

Let’s face reality: social media has turned us into homebodies. We’d rather text someone than ring their doorbell, stay in our cozy bed instead of going out, and talk to friends without adults monitoring us. I’m not saying that this is an issue, but no one wants to go out of their way to do something when social media provides an easier way to do it. With the combination of social media, peer pressure, and the big ask, more and more kids would rather stay inside than go out. We don’t need to be in a school gym with everyone in our grade to be social. Since none of us want to be monitored by adults, we’d rather go to the mall and post about it on Snapchat.

In my opinion, yes, social media has ruined school dances because of the huge gesture that’s required to ask someone and seeing on Instagram how much better of a time other people had at the dance compared to you. But they’re not completely ruined yet: when I attend dances I have a great time, but attendance has definitely fallen.