Teenage students often times find themselves distracted by their technology, when independent work time is given.
Phones Affect Teens Attention Spans While Completing Homework
Technology distracts and procrastinates students from assignments.
Mobile devices entertain teens while interrupting their focus from homework. A study from Child Mind Institute found the presence of a phone reduces a person’s ability to focus. High schoolers get so caught up in their phones, which results in them being distracted.
Health teacher Robert Hafer notices students use their phones daily. He believes that they have a more negative impact among teens.
“Pulling out your phone releases neurotransmitter, and you want to repeat that behavior over and over again to the degree where it looks like a drug addiction, so you have to take away that drug,” Hafer said.
Senior Ryan Shaputis described how phones impact high school students when they arrive home.
“A lot of students just whip out their phones and start playing on it and talk to their friends after school,” Shaputis said.
Technology can affect people in many different ways. Freshman Tiffany Williams, who would rather stay up all night on her cell phone than sleep, understands that mobile devices make it harder to focus.
“I immediately go on my phone to go on social media and then I’ll do my homework at night,” Williams said. “I’d rather be on my phone than go to bed.”
This distraction, as Williams and Shaputis both see in their personal and academic lives, tends to be more detrimental to their learning. Both see students negatively impacted by their phones in their classes and free periods. Moving forward, much like Hafer notes, all three agree that reducing phone use or access in the classroom may help.