Understanding how phones affect us
Some studies suggest that people born between 1995 and 2015, in other words, Gen Z, spend around nine hours a day on their phones. It’s important that students understand the implications of that. While phones help us stay in touch with friends and find communities of like-minded people, they can also harm our self-esteem, increase distraction, and leave us feeling isolated.
Discussing the effect screens have on the brain, on learning, and on presence can encourage students to be mindful about their usage and decide if they want to shift their behavior.
- Smartphones keep us up. They make it harder to fall and stay asleep. Exhaustion makes concentrating and learning more challenging.
- Excessive screen time diminishes our ability to read cues in person. When we’re on screens, we aren’t developing the skills that help us interact with others, like reading body language, making eye contact, and detecting tone of voice. This impacts our ability to build empathy and resolve conflicts.
- The tools we use to connect can leave us feeling disconnected. Social media can present a distorted reality. We may see that everyone else is having a great time. Meanwhile, we are feeling left out and like things aren’t so easy.
- Smartphones are significant contributors to stress and anxiety, especially for frequent social media users.
- Smartphones overwhelm and disorient us. When we’re flicking between tabs, windows, and apps, we think we’re multitasking and being efficient, but we’re not truly focusing. Through our clicks and scrolls, we’re making a bunch of little decisions. This wears out the prefrontal cortex, making it harder to think critically about the bigger decisions that actually do matter.
- Some students are hyperware of how social media affects the brain, yet they’re unable to disconnect. “I know deep down [reducing use] would be beneficial for me. I would worry less . . . and invest in . . . being present with people. But the anxiety and fear of missing out stops me from deleting social media apps,” Claire Krieger, college class of 2026
- How to put down your phone.