A recent study shows that American students use their phones an average of 64 times per school day, destroying their concentration and cognitive abilities.
By now, we’re all familiar with the image of the somewhat harried schoolteacher attempting to maintain control over a classroom where most students are focused on their smartphones rather than the dusty chalkboard. The dangers of social media to the brains of young and old are already well documented, and the amount of time students spend on their handheld devices is increasing with each new study.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tracked the real-time phone habits of middle and high school students and found something that should concern every teacher and parent. Phone use appeared to occur during every hour of the school day, and not a single student in the study went an entire school day without using their mobile phone. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the students who used their phones the most also appeared to have significantly lower self-control.
Published in JAMA Network OpenThe latest study monitored the phone habits of 79 students aged 11 to 18 for two consecutive weeks and found that the average teen spent more than two hours of screen time during school hours alone. That’s almost a third of their total daily phone use – and more than a quarter of the entire school day! But what was more disturbing was not just how long students were on their phones. The worrying factor was how frequently students were accessing their devices, and how the nervous, suffocating habit of sitting appeared to be linked to concentration levels.
Just as infants reach for their favorite security blanket, students reach for their phones an average of 64 times during the school day, and those who hold on to their devices often score worse on standardized tests measuring concentration and self-control. Studies show not only a connection between phones and distractions, but also between compulsive phone use and the mental discipline teens need to learn and develop.
“It’s very worrying… it’s too much, not just because of missed opportunities to learn in the classroom,” Researcher Lauren Hale, sleep expert and professor at Stony Brook’s Renaissance School of Medicine told 74.
“They are missing out on real-life social interaction with peers, which is just as valuable to development during a critical period of one’s life.”
To say that smartphones have become a pervasive feature of teenagers’ daily lives would be an understatement. More than 95% of American teens reported access to a handheld device and nearly half described themselves as “almost constantly” Online by 2024. The study authors aim to determine how this ubiquitous power, which acts like a drug for millions of its users, shapes adolescent development. “Especially in contexts like schools that are designed to promote sustained attention, academic engagement, and social development.”
The authors of the study wrote: “Developmental theories of self-regulation suggest that adolescence is a period of increased sensitivity to distraction, given the continued maturation of prefrontal cognitive control systems along with increased sensitivity to rewarding social information. The continued availability of smartphones will therefore increase social media distraction during school hours, creating unique challenges for adolescents’ ability to regulate attention and maintain attention on academic tasks.”
In other words, teachers face more obstacles than ever before when it comes to controlling their classrooms. Needless to say, teachers should not be required to compete with smartphones in the classroom. Throughout the study, phone use was monitored during every hour of the school day, from 8 a.m. until the last bell at 3 p.m. On average, screen time increased from about 16 minutes at 8 a.m. to more than 22 minutes by 2 p.m. One particularly distracted student used his phone more than five hours a day during school during the study period.
High school students used their smartphones significantly more than middle school students, averaging about 23 minutes of screen time per hour compared to about 12 minutes for younger students. The researchers also kept track of which apps were getting attention. It’s no surprise that social media giants including Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, combined with entertainment apps like YouTube, account for nearly 70 percent of total school-hour screen time. Incredibly, students spent an average of about 75 minutes on social media and about 50 minutes on entertainment apps during the school day, according to the report.
Did all this screen time negatively impact students’ ability to concentrate? To find out, researchers tested high school students’ concentration using a go/no-go task, a standard exercise in which participants are instructed to activate a button in response to one image, but withhold it when they see another image. This test measures a person’s ability to control automatic impulses, which is a key trait of self-control. Among those examined, students who picked up their phones more often during school performed worse.
The results of the study will aid school administrators and parents in the ongoing debate about whether smartphones should be banned in school. Meanwhile, some nations have moved ahead. Australia has banned children under 16 from registering on social media and Malaysia imposed a similar ban in January. The European Parliament is following these two countries and openly discussing them.
Perhaps we should end here with a quote from Apple founder Steve Jobs, who reportedly said that his children were not allowed to use smartphones and computers, “Because it takes two weeks to become an advanced user, but the price of a childhood spent staring at a screen is far more valuable: time for real growth.”
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of RT.
You can share this story on social media:
