Are You Addicted to Your Phone?

If you go anywhere today, the one thing you are guaranteed to see is people walking around texting on their phone, talking on it, watching a show or movie, playing a game or just holding it in their hand. 

Cell phones do have advantages, such as a great and easy way for communication, helpful for research, builds careers/businesses, an entertainment source and more. All students use cell phones and computers everyday to complete school work. 

Cell phones, however, have many negative effects on humans daily. According to AplusTopper, disadvantages can be addiction and distraction, hearing issues, vision problems, general health issues, bullying, privacy and security issues, road accidents and other distractions. depending on how much time you spend on your phone.

Smartphone addiction can also affect sleep patterns, causing them to slack off in school and grades to drop. 

SCL Health states, “The blue light emitted by your cell phone screen restrains the production of melatonin, the hormone that controls your sleep-wake cycle (aka circadian rhythm). This makes it even more difficult to fall asleep and wake up the next day.”

According to HeadphonesAddict.com, “an average teenager spends around 7 hours and 22 minutes per day on the phone, whereas recommended screen time is set at no more than two hours max. Even tweens use their smartphones too much at 4 hours and 44 minutes per day.” 

Some teachers and students at Carolina Forest High School were surveyed on what their daily screen time was. For teachers, the average is around  2 hours and for students, it’s around 5 hours. 

Junior Molly Avery states, “Personally I spend too much time on my phone in school, and I’m trying to spend less time focusing on my work.”

Covid-19 lockdown had a huge increase in technology usage for most people.

According to a University Of Nevada study,  “a drastic spike in usage occurred in the first 90 days of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Verizon reported over 519 billion text messages and over 10 trillion megabytes of data, equivalent to 10.3 trillion Instagram photos.”

Smartphones have definitely had a dramatic impact on social skills on society today. Many people are now relying on social media for communication. Due to the overuse of technology, children may become detached from others’ feelings and find it difficult to interpret non-verbal emotional skills. 

There are many great ways to take 30 minutes out of your day to separate yourself completely from your phone and social media: go outside, talk to your friends, read a book, meditate, play a board game, and many more simple, fun tasks that will benefit you much more than studying the things on your cell phone. 

Technology over the years has grown dramatically and will only continue to upgrade and get bigger. Our society cannot let technology take over our entire lives.

Picture by Google