In today’s world, technology is a massive, influential tool. It is very helpful to our society today by enhancing our means of communication with relatives who live far away, allowing us to get and obtain more knowledge, and promoting our skills in organization. Although technology is very helpful, it has become an addiction, mostly in the youth. Teens have now become very dependent on their phones and can’t seem to put it down for anything. According to mvorganizing.org, on average teens use their phones from 5 to 6 hours a day. A healthy amount of screen time is 2 hours or less. 78% of teens check their phone at least hourly. According to meetcircle.com, the brain does not finish developing until the age of 25. These statistics display the extent to which technology can damage students’ brain development. In addition, most studies show that teenagers who are more dependent on their phones throughout the day show more signs of depression, anxiety, and loneliness, low self-esteem and stress. From this information we can see one of the biggest problems in mental health is unhealthy amounts of social media. 

According to disturbmenot.co, “45% admitted to feeling addicted to their phones, and 60% of teens admitted that their phone addiction has become a real and serious problem.” Now, think about what happens to a friend or family member when they lose their phone? Most of the time a lot of people freak out when they can’t find their phone or sometimes it even gets to the point where they have a panic attack. This is called nomophobia or as some people call it “no phone phobia.” This phobia is the fear of being detached from any phone or social media activity. We can see nomophobia in school when a student gets their phone taken away from them, they panic when they don’t see their phone, and they can focus on anything else except “Can I have my phone back?” or ”I will do my work, if you give me my phone back.” 

Unfortunately, we are beginning to see phone addictions at Westside High School. Teachers are noticing the dependency of students on their phones. A few examples of this were given by AP Language and Composition and English 3 teacher at Westside, Ms. Astrid Gonzalez states, “Using the phone while walking from class to class, taking phones to the restroom – EW!!, and using phones if there is ANY down time in class.” These are just a couple of the examples of this addiction that we can see in school. Most of the time some students choose to fight with the teacher or even just walk out of the classroom instead of simply handing over their phone back. All in all, students prefer screen time over school, extracurricular activities, and socializing with peers as the world becomes more digitalized.