Are phones becoming too addicting?

Think about how many wasted hours we spend each day on our phones. Personally, I spend most of my day looking at my phone when I could be focusing on more academic pursuits.

In today’s society, many kids and teenagers are becoming more addicted to their phones as parents and others are giving them easier access to phones at a young age. When students are on their phones more, it causes them to lose focus and not have good attention spans. Phone usage is causing students to become more focused on their phones and their surrounding peers, rather than focusing on school and their future in education.

Phones play a big role in kids misbehaving as it causes them to act differently to try and “impress” others with pictures and videos of themselves on different platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram. The amount of pictures I see every day of people trying to show off their clothes and shoes is ridiculous. Me, personally, I spend about ten hours a week in total screen time just on Snapchat and Instagram which seems ridiculous. It scares me how much time I actually spend on my phone within the span of just one week. I can guarantee most of my peers can agree that they have drastic phone usage time throughout the week.

What can be done about the students?

Many people have realized phone addiction is an issue, and have decided to do something about it. Even phone companies have decided to take action and try to help cut down the use of phones. In the iOS 12 update for iPhones, there was a feature added that allowed you to access your screen time and check how much someone uses their phone from a day to a week at a time. I feel this is a step in the right direction, as this can help kids focus more on school and keep them off their phones, as phones are seen to be the leading factor of poor work ethic in schools according to Patrick J. Gabriel Jr. from AASA, The School Superintendents Association. I don’t think social media is the main problem; I think terrible work ethic is behind phone addiction because, without phones, we wouldn’t have social media.

According to the article “How Does Screen Time Affect Kids’ Brains?” by Healthline, studies have found that excessive screen time can harm children’s health, like increasing obesity and disrupting sleep. Younger generations are being put into jeopardy as they are becoming addicted to technology at such a young age.

Phone companies need to take into consideration of their customers and create something on their products that will help people remember to take breaks from their devices every once in a while. That is our problem in today’s society as parents are not doing anything about the addiction. I’m not saying students should be banned from having phones completely, but we should be using our phones in the right manner and staying off of them all day every day. Even though phones can be a great way to communicate with friends and family and interact with others, why can’t we just go out and hang out with people instead of just texting all day? It really shocks me how much we have changed as a generation from five years ago to now as technology has increased, causing way more addicted to it. I think as a young generation, we need to put down our devices and interact with each other more than just over a tiny phone screen and spend more time with our friends and family.