In today’s society, teens around the world are growing up with their smartphone close by their side. One could enter any room and immediately find a handful of teens glued intently to the screens of their phones. I have nothing against smartphones and I believe them to be a useful tool, especially in the hands of students. However, they can also be as much of a distraction as they are assistance. The question arises as to whether or not these device can be harmful to students and what the costs of these distractions does to their ability to socialize and perform simple tasks. With the ability to simply Google any question one might have, the ability to problem solves can easily be forgotten. I am also sure that everyone has experienced a time when they thought their phone buzzed in their pocket but it didn’t. These types of issues are where I drew my curiosity about this topic. With that being said, I turned to science to answer questions regarding what our future has in store with the growing presence of technology.

The constant use of cell phones can easily have a negative effect on students. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, “75% of all teenagers in America now carry a mobile phone as well as 58% of twelve year olds.” This statistic is overwhelmingly high especially when compared to the past years. The study also revealed that girls are typically more involved with their cell phone than boys. However, there remains the question of how much technology is too much. It serves, as a way for teens to avoid forms of physical communication and that will only harm them come adulthood. These devices can also serve as serious distractions. In class earlier in the week, we discussed the fact that humans cannot multitask. With that being said, teens are unable to do anything else when they are attending to their phones. This creates even more danger especially when they take out their phones in untimely situations such as while operating a car. We also discussed in class about the risks that a student runs when they continuously check their phone in class. The risk of harming ones grade can be less important to some students than a simple text message.

Psychologist Zachery Roper conducted a study at the University of Iowa where he worked with two groups of volunteers. One group was made up of 13-16 year olds and the other was made up of 20-35 year old adults. In this study, a computer displaying six circles in a different color trained each individual. The person was tasked with finding the red or green circles which either had a horizontal or vertical line inside and the other circles had lines at different angles inside them. Then once the person found the circle they would press either a key to report they found a vertical line or a key to report it was horizontal. The volunteers had unknowingly learned the values of each color, as they would receive a reward for correctness.

After the training, the volunteers were asked to perform a new goal. They had to record the angle of a line inside a blue diamond while another group of six symbols appeared on the screen. Only one symbol was a diamond and the others were circles and sometimes those circles were red or green again. What was found was that the adults were able to perform this task much more efficiently than the group of teens. The adult group also began to ignore the color aspect while the teen group struggled to do so. Another aspect to this second trial was that no reward was given out for correctness. The study concluded that teens react differently and are drawn to rewarding information. In similarity, some activity such as texting or using social media can trigger a reward system within the brain. Once the young brain has linked that reward system it will continue to seek it out which can explain the addiction to smartphones.

Now one key question is how would someone then overcome this intense desire to constantly check his or her phone. In my opinion and the opinion of others, the best way is to remove the devise from the equation whenever possible. This means put it away when doing homework or leave it in a bag during class. The more that a teen can stay disengaged from their phone, the less interested they will become in the information it offers. I can also say that personally whenever I view my phone the information is never anything that couldn’t wait until another time. So the next time you think you hear your phone buzz in class, just wait, because your education is much more rewarding than whatever your phone might have to offer.