Students sliding down slippery slope of social media abyss
Dishes sulk in their filth, and math problems plead for answers whilst suffocated by a concealed backpack. The clock’s endless tick is silenced by a constant buzz and ding, and the time for productivity wastes away in a virtual trance.
West students participated in an anonymous survey prompting them to reflect on their phone usage and mental health. Of 251 participants, 92 students (36.7%) admitted to spending 3-5 hours on their personal devices, while 63 students (25.1%) spend an average of 5-7 hours on their devices. Additionally, the majority (40.1%) of students spend less than an hour on their homework, and 35.9% dedicate 1-2 hours on it.
Ironically, these same students confront teachers to address difficulty excelling in their classes and completing their homework. Yet the statistics provide an obvious solution: students need to interact with coursework and seek additional resources to grasp difficult concepts in place of the time they spend drowning in the internet’s abyss.
“Just put the phone down” is a phrase these adolescents have heard repeatedly, but the execution proves challenging. Students have grown accustomed to the media they consume, and without it, the burdensome fear of isolation eats them alive.
Junior Jacob Schaefer recognizes that spending less time on his phone would help accelerate his motivation in school. However, it would also deprive him of the social connection teens crave.
“Not going on my phone as much would definitely help me focus on schoolwork and get ahead of assignments instead of procrastinating them,” he said. “But it would make life more boring because I’m so used to the serotonin the videos release.”
While many prescribe Gen Z as having a “screen addiction,” Spanish and Global Academy teacher Erin Quesnell-Jobs recognizes that these students are a product of the virtual reality they are immersed in.
“When we talk about the disconnect that’s happening today, it’s easy for past generations to blame the current generation,” she said. “I don’t think it’s all their fault, and we should be criticizing the system they are growing up in. It’s all they’ve known and it’s the way they navigate and communicate with each other.”
Quesnell-Jobs also feels that the broadened point of reference disturbs the environment humans are used to, magnifying social pressure to an unprecedented degree.
“When I was in school, we had no way of knowing what kids were wearing in other states, everyone just wore whatever made them happy without the immense pressure to fit or follow a trend,” she said. “There was never this level of exposure to so many different ways of life all at once, and while globalization is a good thing and allows diverse perspectives, it is also very unnatural.”
In The Anxious Generation, written by Jonathan Haidt, phones are described as a “portal in pockets” that takes people into an “exciting, addictive, [and] unstable” world, one not optimal for a developing, young mind, according to Quesnell-Jobs.
“I really love the quote ‘comparison is the thief of joy,’” she said. “When you are constantly comparing yourself to other people on social media, it becomes so easy to invalidate all the little things you love about yourself.”
However, the pockets of corporations grow alongside the audience’s insecurities. Haidt acknowledges that if any toy was proven to have adverse effects on one’s mental wellbeing to the same extent as social media, it would be immediately stripped from shelves. This greatly intrigues and alarms Principal Rebecca Montour.
“Even the Surgeon General put out a warning in 2023 about the detrimental effects social media has on young users, and the use of it has not decreased amongst teens,” she said. “The design to ‘hook’ them was deliberate and intentional by corporations, and the use of psychological tactics to increase engagement is appalling to me.”
The student survey concludes that adolescents are cognizant of the effect that the media has on their overall wellbeing. Of 251 participants, only 24 students (9.6%) claim that social media impacts them in an overarchingly positive way. While the constant interactions can be construed as grueling, the collective student body refuses to shed the load of their device.
Pre-Calc and Algebra 2 teacher Kenneth Levine recalls a time when his daughter was forced to part ways with her phone. In middle school, she spent a duration of time (ranging from a week to a month) with a high school counselor and a group of juvenile campers in the natural world, free of technology.
“When we went to pick her up, she would go on and on with stories and it was very clear that her life was better without her phone,” he said. “After hearing all the stories, we would eventually hand the phone back to her and the rest of the car ride was spent in silence. She was glued to her device.”
As a parent who recognizes the fulfillment his daughter would experience without a phone, Levine caved because of its convenience. In a world that requires swift communication around the clock, it is hard to thrive without technology.
“My daughter got a phone when she was in seventh grade because she was on a traveling sports team and the phone was helpful for communication,” he said.
Countless parents are put in similar circumstances, including a West student’s anonymous mother who was very conflicted before furnishing her children’s eager hands with the advanced technology.
“There are so many dangers with smartphones, and it is impossible to know and protect kids from all of them,” she said. “But there is also the need and desire to stay connected to my kids as they get older and become more independent.”
However, in retrospect, she has her fair share of regrets.
“Social media has programmed my kids to think a certain way and believe things that may or may not be true,” she said. “As a parent, I want them to know they are perfect and worthy exactly the way they are. I don’t want them to use social media as a gauge of their success, but I think they sometimes slip into that comparative mentality.”
Modified English teacher Beth Flannery admits to experiencing a similar atmosphere amongst her peers.
“There’s this sense in parenting where you’re competing to have the most successful kids,” she said.
This generates additional pressure for parents to give in to their children’s requests, and hand over the manipulative devices that “all their friends have.” Thus, parent’s fear of raising an isolated child have heightened over the years.
Yet despite the constant connection to one another, staff have noticed a decrease in student interactions in the school building. During passing time and W-hour, constant chatter has been replaced with dancing thumbs. Some deem this concerning, while others, including Geometry teacher John Stack, feel the world is undergoing a destined shift.
“Since society's changing as well, I don't think students’ underdeveloped social skills will have too many adverse effects on them as they get older,” he said. “ Just look at our parent-teacher conferences, 90 to 95% of my conferences are virtual now, which would've never happened five years ago.”
Quesnell-Jobs agrees.
“As long as we are still placing value on human connection, either in person or via technology, humanity will be okay,” she said.
However, humans require belongingness and love that is difficult to achieve solely through a screen. According to Haidt, face-to-face interactions are “a deep, ancient, and underappreciated part of human evolution,” and he argues they are a necessity for flourishment and success. Many people value their real connections above virtual ones, however, Flannery recognizes that self-depreciative decision making is of human nature.
“We know things are bad for us and we do them anyway,” she said. “For instance, I know that watching the news 24 hours is bad for me, but l still do it.”
To guide students in the right direction, West’s administrative team introduced “SEL” (Student Emotional Learning) homeroom lessons. These will be inspired by data collected from parents, teachers, and students, and Montour hopes to encourage goal setting in regards to technology and push for students to spend more time encountering smiles in place of emojis.
“If a student is typically on social media 3+ hours a day, they could turn the settings on their phone to restrict them to two hours a day and try to work down from there,” she said. “My hope is for students to become less reliant on technology and to find more joy in their interactions with each other.”
by Jazmine Blustin
Published December 2 2024
Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue III