In the age ranges of 11-14 years, they spend on average nine hours on screens, and 15–18-year-olds spend seven and a half hours on average according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while the recommended for both of those age groups is 2 hours maximum!
That is more than double the recommended amount. It was proving to be unhealthy.
Studies show that excessive amounts of screen time have been affecting teenagers’ physical and teenager’s mental health. There are links to eye strain, trouble concentrating, pain from holding phones or other devices, anxiety, stress, depression, loss of interest in other activities, lower physical activity, and sleep problems.
Not only does it affect teenagers as people, but it affects their responsibilities and work.
Gabriella Alonso, a Coral Springs High School student, who has a 7 and-a-half average, states “I feel like having a phone or being on the phone all the time distracts you from doing the work that you need to do” She says her phone prevents her from doing work at home.
Having a device that has all the entertainment you could want in a few touches of a screen is hard to disconnect from.
“Sometimes I have a lot of work in one night because I’m on my phone a lot” stated Colt Chambers, also a student at Coral Springs, who has an average of 7 and a half hours of screen time daily. Chambers said that most of his screen time was divided between both home and school, mostly consisting of him being on Instagram.
Chambers states that although the buildup of work is caused by his phone, he is still able to “do the work so it doesn’t matter.” It seems that his phone time has a link to his struggle to focus on work in school and at home, which tends to be most cases among teenagers now.
Tatiana King from Coral Springs High, who has roughly over ten hours of screen time, states that her phone distracts her from working in school and at home.
In comparison, “Honestly, not really, I feel like I manage things pretty well” is what Cecilia Pinheiro, a Coral Springs student who has an average of 10 hours, stated when she was asked if she felt that her phone distracts her from her work at home.
Same with another student Amber Carter in which she stated she doesn’t think that her phone prevents her from doing work at home.
It seems that each person’s productivity depends on the person rather than how many hours they have on their phone. Such as the comparisons of Alonso and Pinheiro, Pinheiro has 3 more screen time hours than her but seems to be more at peace with her work levels.
What all these students had in common was what they spent all their time on. Social media. Every student interviewed had their main time apps as Messages, Instagram, or TikTok.
In this age, it is hard to separate oneself from phones because of how much they revolve our lives, but small habit changes help limit use.
Cutting out habits where having your phone and specifically using it is unnecessary or opening your phone first thing in the morning. Small actions such as those will make your phone feel less important and help detach what seems to be a hard addiction to many teenagers.
