Phones are used everyday. They have shown to be an essential part of life with all their features. People are able to communicate with each other and see what’s going on in the world. But when is it too much? The people most prone to use phones are shown to be teenagers in a report assessing which generations use their phones the most by ResearchGate. This is clearly demonstrated through the phone usage in Wakefield High School. A mixed sample of students were interviewed about their screen time, most used apps, and other aspects surrounding their phones. Different teachers were also interviewed to gain their insight of the phone usage during class. All things considered, phone addiction has shown to be a problem in all high schools in America. 

After each Wakefield student was interviewed, their average screen time summed up to be 4 hours and 28 minutes. This is twice the appropriate screen time, which is under 2 hours as listed in the key points of MyKidsVision when evaluating the healthy amount of phone usage in their report.  The highest screen times noted were over 7 hours. That’s nearly 43% of the day being spent on a phone. In addition, the students were asked to name the top three apps used most on their phones and Instagram was on everyone’s list. They all spent around 2 hours and 17 minutes on Instagram per day. That alone was over the appropriate screen time suited for teenagers. Instagram is considered highly addictive due to its reel feature which allows teenagers to mindlessly scroll through short videos for hours. Furthermore, Tiktok has a similar feature which made this app the runner-up. Everyone who listed Tiktok has an average of over 3 hours. One student reported to spend 36 hours on TikTok a week. That’s around 5 hours per day scrolling through videos. 

Each student was asked to list their daily pick up time which is how many times a day someone unlocks their phone to use it. The average pickups for Wakefield students revealed to be 116. Kids use their phones 47 times in a school day; 7 uses in a single hour. This means the average student checks their phone once every 10 minutes. Sequentially, the use of phones during instructional period has proved to be a common problem for teachers. Teachers caught kids on their phones 10 times a class period. Despite a student being warned to put their phone away, there is a 40% chance they’ll continue using it. Each teacher shares a common policy where phones aren’t allowed to be used while they’re teaching. Regardless of this, oftentimes kids are caught on their phones every 9-10 minutes and are repeatedly asked to put them away. 

Research indicates the dopamine effect is the primary cause of phone addiction. The brain releases dopamine every time someone checks their phone. This provides short-lived sensations of satisfaction. Once it runs out, the brain wants to engage more in the activity that initiated the release. Notifications, textings, and certain apps are all triggers for the dopamine effect. Using a cell phone has the similar effect of cocaine use has on the brain. It’s highly addictive and overusing phones destroys the essential components of dopamine. People will lose their impulse control and motivational drive which can lead to depression, anxiety, and disrupted sleep patterns.  Moreover, the average sleep time reported among students was 6 hours. Youth between the ages of 13-18 should be getting at least 8 hours of sleep per night. Some students would put up their phones as late as 2 or 3 in the morning. Melatonin, the hormone our brain produces for sleep, gets disrupted by the brightness of phone screens in the dark. The screens simulate daylight and make it harder for someone to fall asleep. One student said in their interview, “My phone is the last thing I look at before I sleep.” 

The data revealed that there is a correlation between phone usage and academic performance. For example, the student who has the lowest screen time has the highest GPA of 4.0. On the other hand, lower grades were the results of the students with exceedingly high screen times. Eighty percent of Wakefield teachers saw a visible correlation between students who are successful and how much time they spent on their phone during class. One teacher observed, “The ones that are always on their phones, you find that they are gonna miss content, they’re not paying attention, and they don’t know what we’re doing.” When a student is on their phone in class, it takes a significant amount of their attention away from learning. Harvard did a study to see the impact of phones on academic performance and found that they negatively affected concentration, reaction time, and disrupted cognitive capacity. All of these factors would lead to students performing poorly in school. 

However, there are exceptions to these performance issues. The student with the second highest GPA, 3.9, didn’t put their phone up until 2 am. They got a total amount of 5 hours of sleep per day. When asked if their phone affected their sleep patterns, they answered yes. Further supporting this, one teacher said regarding another student, “I’ve just had a conversation with a kid in my 3rd period. She was on her phone alot. I talked about it and she just said, ‘I find it hard to focus on English stuff during class because I have to read and think, so I just do it at home.’ And she’s actually right, she’s an A student and does a really great job on her assignments, but she focuses better outside of the classroom.” This shows that there are special cases in which students can efficiently manage their time between phones and school work. This takes more discipline to accomplish, but it is steadily achievable to students. 

Students are aware of being addicted to their devices given everyone answered yes to this question. Phone addiction looks different to others. Some considered it looking at their phone right after completing a task. Others defined it as where the teacher needs to take the phone away in order to focus. Nonetheless, a common ground was reached where true phone addiction takes away time from the aspects that truly matter like friends and family. The hours spent scrolling through stories can be used to spend time with loved ones. Hours are lost to our phones and it’s important to know when to turn off the screen. One student notes, “I use my phone a lot, but at the same time I take the time to try and stay in touch with my family and help out by supporting everyone in my household.” 

The overall data summary shows that this sample of Wakefield students are still trying to establish a balance between real time and screen time. Even so, there is hope that teenagers will be able to apply discipline into their phone habits and reassess the true value of time.