Written by Ashley Miller Isabella Recine |
Photos by Isabella Recine |

Have you noticed you can’t even leave your house without seeing people crossing the street while on their cell phones? Or seeing people on their phones while they are having a conversation with someone? Does your mom blame everything on your phone? It is becoming a problem everywhere. Students are so distracted. most of them can’t even stand not using their phone for a week

They use their phones during class, text, and drive, and can’t even have a conversation face to face. Laura Martino, the French/Spanish teacher said, “even though students can get distracted with their phones nearby, music can help concentration and relieve the stress of what they are working hard on.”

Even at a family get together at least half of the people in the room are on their phones rather than spending time with their actual real-life family that is right there with them.  

Students and even teachers say they love their phones and are beyond addicted to them. Many people are so addicted to their phones, that living in the moment has become less important. Many people don’t take the time to put down their phones, stop recording, and just appreciate everything going on around them. Many people try to capture the good times they are having… but no shame in that, aren’t we all guilty of doing the same?

Phones distract a vast number of peoples. In the article “I Used To  Be A Human,” Andrew Sullivian wrote…“I tried reading books, but that skill now began to elude me. After a couple of pages, my fingers twitched for a keyboard. I tried meditation, but my mind bucked and bridled as I tried to still it. I got a steady workout routine, and it gave me the only relief I could measure for an hour or so a day. But over time in this pervasive virtual world, the online clamor grew louder and louder. Although I spent hours each day, alone and silent, attached to a laptop, it felt as if I were in a constant cacophonous crowd of words and images, sounds and ideas, emotions and tirades — a wind tunnel of deafening, deadening noise. So much of it was irresistible, as I fully understood. So much of the technology was irreversible, as I also knew. But I’d begun to fear that this new way of living was actually becoming a way of not-living.”

Kids spend 4+ hours on their phones daily. By the end of the day their phones are close to dead; kids even charge their phones multiple times because they die throughout the day.

Freshmen Tim Green and Ryan Gasparini said, “Throughout the day I have to recharge my phone quite a few times because it dies.”  They plug their phones into the outlets during class to keep their batteries fully charged. Students cannot even keep away from their phones for more than a half hour class. They start texting their  friends who are feet away from them. Even though they think they won’t get caught, teachers always know they are on their phones.

Teachers claim they take an average of 4 phones away a day and tell at least the same number of students or more to put them away. To prevent students from going on their phones, teachers such as science teacher Colleen Whittel or French/Spanish teacher Laura Martino keep them in a phone locker or tell them to put them away or keep them until the very end of class/day. Even though teachers may confiscate phones when students forget their Chromebook, they allow students to do class activities on their phone for that one day. 

While students phones are nearly dead by the end of the day, Mrs.Whittel is still fully charged and doesn’t even have to charge it the following night. “I only charge my phone every four or five days!” She even says she doesn’t usually use her phone throughout the day, only for emergencies or important phone calls/texts from her family members.

Phones don’t just disturb people’s daytime, it also disturbs their night. Freshman Bella Recine, Junior Caitlin Miller, and Mrs. Wittel all say they sleep with their phones next to them. Even though they all sleep with their phones next to them, it only sometimes bothers their sleep. To make sure they can sleep through the night, they can put their phones on do not disturb.