12 Hours Too Many

by Noah Eastep

Since the introduction of cellular phones around the world in the early 2000s, electronic usage has skyrocketed. Everywhere you go, you will see a person with a phone in their hands, doing their thing. However, it becomes a problem whenever a person uses their phone for long periods without breaks, consecutively.

According to recent studies, over 97% of high school students have a cellular device, and over 76% of middle school students use phones as well. This goes to show how almost every teenager owns a cell phone. Adding to those studies, over 80 percent of those middle schoolers/high schoolers use their phones for over seven hours a day. Using phones for this amount of time is a terrible thing, as it can lead to serious health effects. 

According to the National Library of Medicine, using your phone for long periods can lead to eye strain, sleep deprivation, personality disorders, anxiety and many more downsides. All of these effects will affect students socially and academically.

For example, if students are not getting enough sleep, then they will not have the energy to perform at school, resulting in lower scores on tests. Eye strain is a temporary effect of using your phone for too long, but can become a permanent issue if it occurs regularly. Being on your phone for this amount of time means that a person is assumed to be on some sort of social media application, which already has its negative effects.

Anxiety and personality disorders most likely originate from social media websites, as it has been proven in the past that teens in high school are most likely to be on multiple social media websites. They may not be able to handle the normality and absurd looks of influencers, leading to these negative effects. These negative effects of using phones and social media applications can lead to problems academically and socially.

While phones and social media may be helpful in some situations as they can provide a way for people to connect online, as of recently, they have been gaining negative reputations for ways for people to experience negativity.

Social media and the chronic use of phones have been shown to cause the suicides of over 30,000 teenagers as of last year, according to the National Library of Medicine. If chronic phone usage is causing this, then why are people using their phones as if it is nothing? This may be because social media apps use a complex algorithm to keep their users engaged for the longest amount of time possible.

Are social media platforms at fault, or are phones the true device to blame?

The answer is still not known to this day as both phones and social media correlate very similar results when it comes to these negative effects. We must keep into account that phones are still fairly recent innovations, and we are only seeing the beginning of these results. More research is needed in order to determine which is more at fault. 

Since phones and social media correlate very heavily, it is only logical for a person to just put down the phone. Detaching themselves from devices for a few days can lead to very positive effects.

For example, they will not need to worry about the horrors of being online. According to an article called “The Learning Scientists”, putting down your phones for a few days can result in reduced stress, better sleep and better overall academic performance for students. These results go to show that there are better options than from using your phone for over 12 hours a day.

For example, people can go outside and interact with friends, play sports, or do anything other than using their phones for a few days to see positive results.

Don’t let phones rule your life, there are better ways to spend your free time.