Is it just me or is anyone else noticing how their phone screentime increases day after day? Noticing this, I’ve wondered if I was getting addicted to my phone, wasting all that time.
After reflecting on my phone usage, I realized that I spend most of my time on social media as many others do. However, I wasn’t just scrolling through random pictures. Much to my surprise, I was actually doing school work through social media.
There are more than five group chats on my Instagram for group projects or class projects. Because most of these projects are assigned entirely outside of class, students end up discussing the project on their phones for hours, checking on each other’s progress. Of course, I check to Remind for daily class updates, and Instagram and Facebook posts for club meetings and school events that can’t be notified otherwise.
When one of my teachers sent a Remind saying that important information would be posted on Discord but not on Schoolloop or Google Classroom, I was utterly annoyed. (I even had to make a Discord account just to get notifications on an ongoing project for one of my classes.) When I saw that our teacher sent us Discord messages at 11:00 PM on a Saturday to remind us we have homework he never posted elsewhere, I freaked out.
I started to go into my social media accounts just to check school events and club information, but I have ended up using way more time than I should have. The more I look through my phone, the more I become distracted and sidetracked like any other teenager on social media. Sure, I can take the blame for that, but the main reason my screentime on social media has increased is that I am afraid that I will miss something important, I will be unprepared, or worse, left out.
Now that I think about it, I can’t imagine a life without my phone. Not because I’m an addict, but because that is what schools these days require.
A lot of people say Generation Z should be grateful for being able to use advanced technology. But a lot of us feel miserable. With our eyes are always strained, and our heads always dizzy from staying on top of most school work through tiny screens as we are forced to spend hours and hours facing a blinding screen.
We shouldn’t have to bother checking our phones anxiously for everything going on in school. We don’t want to use them any more than we already do. Let us live our lives without it.
The following list is a request to what schools should do to replace phone usage:
After reflecting on my phone usage, I realized that I spend most of my time on social media as many others do. However, I wasn’t just scrolling through random pictures. Much to my surprise, I was actually doing school work through social media.
There are more than five group chats on my Instagram for group projects or class projects. Because most of these projects are assigned entirely outside of class, students end up discussing the project on their phones for hours, checking on each other’s progress. Of course, I check to Remind for daily class updates, and Instagram and Facebook posts for club meetings and school events that can’t be notified otherwise.
When one of my teachers sent a Remind saying that important information would be posted on Discord but not on Schoolloop or Google Classroom, I was utterly annoyed. (I even had to make a Discord account just to get notifications on an ongoing project for one of my classes.) When I saw that our teacher sent us Discord messages at 11:00 PM on a Saturday to remind us we have homework he never posted elsewhere, I freaked out.
I started to go into my social media accounts just to check school events and club information, but I have ended up using way more time than I should have. The more I look through my phone, the more I become distracted and sidetracked like any other teenager on social media. Sure, I can take the blame for that, but the main reason my screentime on social media has increased is that I am afraid that I will miss something important, I will be unprepared, or worse, left out.
Now that I think about it, I can’t imagine a life without my phone. Not because I’m an addict, but because that is what schools these days require.
A lot of people say Generation Z should be grateful for being able to use advanced technology. But a lot of us feel miserable. With our eyes are always strained, and our heads always dizzy from staying on top of most school work through tiny screens as we are forced to spend hours and hours facing a blinding screen.
We shouldn’t have to bother checking our phones anxiously for everything going on in school. We don’t want to use them any more than we already do. Let us live our lives without it.
The following list is a request to what schools should do to replace phone usage:
- Use of normal school-related apps accessible on school computers or use of physical assignment sheets
- More class time to clarify instructions
- Class time to work face-to-face with others
- Announcements/notifications about a change in schedule, test days, school events, and clubs in person
- Education without any technological devices schools can’t provide
- Being aware of students who are technologically disadvantaged, instead of taking advantage of the fact that most people use phones.