Johns Hopkins Medicine has studies showing that 50% of students with smartphones feel addicted to their phones. Throughout school, phones are never out of reach; students are often faced with worrying about staying up to date with their friends and getting behind socially. This underlying stress has led to excessive scrolling to ensure comfort in many social lives.
Algorithms on social media are designed to benefit company owners by keeping users engaged and increasing views for their content. It customizes users’ feeds to consistently source them with what they want to see, leading to polarization of ideas. This has caused many to keep scrolling and follow down rabbit holes because they are fed with videos that justify their views as opposed to presenting another side to disagree with them.
If your social media feed feels too comfortable, then it’s likely by design. It is important to feel challenged on your views to convince you that you’re right.
Because of this addiction social media has installed, addiction has become more and more noticeable among teenagers. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, ¼ of teenagers with over 4 hours of screen time have experienced anxiety or depression symptoms in the past 2 weeks. Mental struggles on top of school pressure have led to a lack of productivity through the distraction of phones.
“I spend 10 hours on my phone per day, I’m taking breaks from school, catching up with my friends and then just scrolling,” sophomore Alena Daniels said. “I don’t like when I can’t be on my phone; I get anxious”.
The fear of getting behind is the fuel behind many students’ addictions. A simple buzz on their phone is enough to start the hours of scrolling, even if it was meant to be for five minutes. Once the scrolling begins, procrastinating becomes much easier, waiting for the next even number on the clock to begin the piles of homework.
“I’ll say at 4:00 but then it’s 4:01, so then it turns to 4:30, and it keeps getting pushed back,” sophomore Emily Fredlake said.
The idea of working better under stress keeps students staying up late trying to finish the same assignment that was intended to be done right after school. Prolonging the start time only has students trying to cram right before 11:59 p.m. and the constant breaks during studying only drag out the finish time. Students aren’t just losing hours of sleep, but they are entering classrooms exhausted from the consumption the night prior, making it harder to focus and retain information. According to the American College of Pediatricians, kids with a television in their room are more likely to score 7-8 points lower on standardized math and reading tests than kids without.
Teenagers have found that there is no such thing as a “5 minute break”, and they need to be forcibly removed from the scrolling to be able to completely focus away from their phones.
“I’ve locked my social media apps, TikTok and Instagram, for one hour a day so my screen time has gone down significantly to like an hour or two,” sophomore Isabelle Quinn said.
The first step to lowering screen time is through the acknowledgement that the phone is the problem. Being able to compare worth ethics with and without a phone involved highlights just how big of an impact it makes. Even the simple “Do Not Disturb” button has resulted in longer and better focus time.
“My phone is peaceful…when I get bored I resort to it,” Daniels said.
It’s easy to understand the fixation, but the issue is the steps to overcome it. Many students would rather have a lower screen time and want to take the next step, but the habits are already installed, making it harder to break. Procrastinating is easy, however, breaking the cycle is hard. Anybody can say that they deserve a break from school to scroll,but it is about recognizing when it is taking over their success.
“I would rather have a lower screen time,” Daniels said.
Screen time blocking apps are very beneficial to set goals for yourself and grow streaks of success. Two of my favorite apps are ScreenZen and Opal, providing customizable screen time and reports of your progress. These tools don’t limit the total use of an app, instead, they provide self controlling options. This assists in the idea that reducing screen time isn’t solely from willpower, it is possible to regain control over attention without losing freedom.
