Maybe It Is The Phone

Sarah Martinez - Reporter

Photos by Sarah Martinez

Today's children have grown up with phones in their hands. Brainrot resurfaces every year, from crazy frog to skibidi toilet. With screen times averaging 7.5 hours for children between the ages of 8-18, two questions arise. What are the implications of this? What are the lasting effects? 

   Parents often do not manage their children’s screen time and are left unaware of what their children access on the internet. Inappropriate content is readily available for these children, with some examples being the grand catastrophe of Elsagate. Underage use of the internet can be dangerous, as some people prey on these unassuming children.                                              

   Without straying, this content fuels anxiety and depression. Some physical effects of phone usage include the condition known as “text neck” and eyestrain, although these issues typically arise from overuse. Later on in life, teens begin accessing reels and highlights of others’ lives, which causes a feeling of self-depreciation and inferiority.

Moreover, phones can be linked with depression, especially given the context of cyberbullying, as an average of 30% of teens have been subjected to such bullying in accordance with a 2024 Cyberbullying Research Center statistic.

   Although the effects of phones are not all doom and gloom, the internet may foster growth in media literacy, as well as knowledge. Phones can be the catalyst for socializing across long distances, emergency contact, and easy access to information across the centuries. Without phones, the bank apps of today would not be available, and only physical cash and cards would be acceptable. Without phones, the moments so often pictured would only be captured in one’s mind. Without phones, locations and places to visit would be known only by word of mouth. Phones are a double-edged sword that can either be the fruit of knowledge or the headache of the day. 

   As phones are an increasingly large part of everyday life, it is more important now than ever to realize that users’ responsibility is to decide how and when they should be utilized.

 “It is important to have a healthy balance between phone life and your attention span,” junior Alyssa Lewis said.

   One must divide their time effectively between family and friends, outside activities, and moderate phone usage. As easy as it is to say “stop using the phone,” doing so proves difficult in the modern context. 

“Although I don’t have a phone currently, I struggle a lot because our generation uses phones a lot as communication and to connect with others, and people ask me for phone numbers or socials all the time. I have to tell them I don’t have a phone, and I notice the disconnection when they hear that,” sophomore Alyssa Odle said.

   Stepping away from the phone takes time and requires a substitute activity to be effective. Apps like Forest or Flora incentivize users to stay off their phones through planting a digital seed. Therefore, phones are an amazing tool; it all depends on the person’s moderation of such.