Are Smartphones Helping or Diminishing Your Work?
Connor Teel on his smartphone during study hall.
According to Pew Research center, 73% of teens own a smartphone. Twenty four percent of teens say they are online constantly.
Connor Teel, a senior at Arrowhead High School, is an honor roll student, and says he is an active smartphone user.
“I bring my phone everywhere, and use it everywhere. Most of the time not for school work,” Teel says.
Teel admits that during school he is consumed in games, music, and social media while not doing his school work. “Study halls are not for studying,” Teel says as he scrolls through his phone on Twitter.
“Personally, I think phones have no positive influence on school work. I hardly ever look up things on my phone, and when I do need to look up something, it is on my computer. I know of people who type papers on their phones and use Google Classroom, but I can’t do it on a small screen,” says Teel.
Stephen Gardner is one of those people who uses Google Classroom on a phone. Gardner is also a senior at high school, a varsity football player, as well as a varsity track player.
“I sometimes don’t bring my computer to school because I find it easier to just type it on my phone. Typing on my phone is quicker because I am able to write up papers like I am texting someone,” says Gardner.
In the past Arrowhead has had reported problems involving smartphones and the apps that come along with it. In 2014, an app by the name of Yik Yak reached the surface of Arrowhead students.
Yik Yak is an application where the user can see anonymous posts up to a 1.5 mile radius around them.
“That app was a disaster. As soon as that app took off in popularity, kids were getting bullied everywhere by anonymous users,” says Teel.
While some were getting enjoyment out of the controversy and bullying, several students were disappointed.
“It ruined a lot of things for us. We are now more restricted on what we can use on our phones because of some single students,” says Gardner
In addition, in recent years an app called Brighten hit the student atmosphere. An app made for people to compliment others anonymously, turned into another app for Arrowhead students to bully each other.
“I thought it was going to be yik yak all over again,” says Gardener.
Although there are apps that create bad situations for students, some help students achieve more. Google has released their Google mail, Drive, Sheets, Docs, Classroom, and many more apps that allow students to be able to do the same thing they would do on a computer.
Teel says, “Depends on who the person is” when people use their phone for more of games or social media on school work.
