The Student News Site of McCallum High School

The Shield Online

The Student News Site of McCallum High School

The Shield Online

The Student News Site of McCallum High School

The Shield Online

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Digital Distractions

Students need to put down phones and spend more time talking face-to-face

Every day at school, I see kids walking the halls staring at their phones. They don’t see what is going on around them and are only in tune to just what is going on in that little box. Personally, I cannot walk around on my phone all the time as I feel like I will trip and fall. I feel like walking in the halls it is a game of human dodgeball with all of the kids staring at their phones.

I am going to be completely honest here; I am on my phone a lot. But this year for my New Year’s Resolution, I thought it would be a good idea to be off my phone more often. With this new mindset, I don’t take my phone out when I am hanging out with my friends. It is so great to not have a distraction right next to me or in my pocket and just to be with my friends in the moment. Now that I don’t stay on my phone with my friends, we have so much more time for activities and hanging out and actually talking to each other about things that mattered, not things that we saw on Instagram earlier that day.

I was in the hallways at school and looking around to see what everyone was doing. Some people that were just walking with their friends talking about something. But that definitely isn’t everyone. I see so many people every day walking around with their eyes on their phones staring at them without looking up to see what is going on. I bet that if we talked to someone 10 or 12 years ago and told them that every 14-18 year-old was going to have one or more electronic handheld devices with them, they probably wouldn’t believe us.

According to a Mobile Technology Fact sheet, 90 percent of American adults have a cell phone, 58 percent of American adults have a smart phone, 32 percent of American adults own an e-reader and 42 percent of American adults own a tablet computer. What is even crazier is the number of texts that a teen on average sends per month compared to that of an adult 65 years or older. A teen on average will send upwards or 3,339 texts per month while 65 year olds will only send about 32 text messages per month.

I was sitting at lunch one day with my friend, and we were talking and looking around outside and noticed a couple of girls sitting next to each other, just staring at their phones. What are they even looking at? Most likely watching pointless videos on Vine or replying to Snapchats from earlier. This kind of thing is ridiculous given that for seven hours of the day we have to silently sit at a desk and not talk at all. I love that at lunch I can finally put my phone away and be able to just talk to my friends about morning classes and whatever else is going on.

Of course, phone and technology usage is not all that bad. It can be a great way to communicate with people who live far away from you. It can also be used during school to look up things you need to know for school or calculators for math.

There are definitely consequences to being on your phone all the time. Recent research studies have come to the conclusion that kids on their devices more of the time results it affecting their communication skills with the world. Most kids will not look forward to communication in real life and find it awkward and uncomfortable to be able to talk to people about what is going on.

But what is going on while all of these kids are sending texts and not interacting with the actual people and things going on around them? Well, it’s pretty simple. It seems that kids are “missing out.” Talking to several people around school, it is pretty clear that high schoolers are pretty scared that people are talking about them behind their back or doing things without them.

It doesn’t have to be like this, however. People can put their phones away, leave them at home and practice just enjoying the moment. With this kind of practice in mind, it can be a lot easier to put the phone away and just be more present in the moment.

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Digital Distractions