Originally a good way to keep contact with friends near and far, many now find the hours they spend on Facebook every day to be more trouble than they’re worth.

The Facebook group titled “I Was Doing Homework, Then I Ended Up On Facebook” currently has over one million members, and expresses a sentiment that many teens share: Facebook is a distraction.

Many teens have found that the lure to sign on is especially strong when working on homework, college applications, or essays. A readily accessible distraction, simply signing onto Facebook can easily make one forget about what they really should be doing. This is not only making it hard to get important things like homework done on time, it is actually causing some teens’ grades to drop.

Many, myself included, are attempting to limit the distraction that Facebook imposes on our lives. I decided to give up Facebook for lent this year, along with a surprising number of my Facebook friends.

At first I would absentmindedly start signing on each time I got onto the computer, but after about a week I found this easy to avoid, and even found the urge to sign on at all not hard to resist. It was a relaxing lent, and when I signed on 40 days later, I promised myself that I would spend less time on Facebook in the future. It hasn’t been a hard promise to keep.

Countless others around the country are coming up with their own ways to minimize time spent online. Some make promises with friends to only sign on over weekends, and hold each other accountable. Others find the urge to sign on harder to resist and ask a trusted family member or friend to change their Facebook password every Sunday night and give it back on the following Friday night. That way they are safe from distraction throughout the busy week. Others are even deactivating accounts and signing off of Facebook entirely.

While Facebook looks harmless, I hope that teens will reevaluate how much time they spend signed on, and see the importance of finding other ways to spend their days.