Our school has an addiction problem. A big one.
The symptoms are all there: we can’t walk in straight lines in the hallways. We can’t focus in our classes. We don’t even look our friends in the eyes anymore.
Our smartphones are everywhere, and it’s a problem.
When was the last time you talked to a stranger in the lunch line? Made a new friend in a class? And I know we say hello to our friends in the halls, but what do we do to avoid eye contact with a stranger?
We pull out our phones. In fact, while an editor read this story over my shoulder just now, can you guess what I did? I checked Twitter. For the fifth time in the past three minutes.
All this smartphone use has its costs, and it’s time we tried to cut back.
Like all addictions, the person we’re hurting most is ourselves.
All our tweeting, texting, and Snapchatting makes us feel social, but the reality is the opposite. Instead of talking to all the people around us, we ignore them for a few people in our contact lists. We’re missing out on the opportunity to meet new people, socialize, or see anything around us. And that’s before you even think about what smartphones do to our grades (we care about those right?).
I’ll be the first to admit I’m the biggest offender here. As soon as a teacher says something boring, complicated, or unrelated to the subject at hand, my phone comes out. I have better things to do than listen to a teacher. I have unread texts! At least I have my priorities straight.
But I don’t, and neither do you. We only get 90 minutes of a class, 2-3 times a week. It can seem like clock is barely moving as we struggle through math problems, but the truth is that isn’t much time. Using your phone for half the class means you just cut out half of the material you were supposed to learn. Assuming you care about things like “college” and “success in life”, putting your phone away might be in your best interests.
Of course, there’s some self-interest involved on my part here too. Your smartphone use isn’t just hurting you. I’m tired of trying to hold conversations with people that are attempting to tweet at the same time or use their smartphone while walking.
I dream of a world where I can walk down the halls without people bumping into me as they try to Snapchat going past senior rail. Is this an unreasonable goal?