I was challenged by a
friend to give my thoughts on an article they had recently read. The article centered
on a teacher’s experiment held in one of her classrooms. For one class period on
one day, she allowed those students who carried a cell phone with them to keep
their phones turned on with the volume turned up. Their responsibility in the
experiment required them to walk to the white board at the front of the classroom
and put a tally mark down every time they got a notification on their cell
phone. The notifications included whether they received a text, an email, a
phone call, a Facebook notice, an Instagram photo or a tweet on their Twitter
account. Whatever the notification, upon receiving it, they were to mark it
accordingly on the white board. Per the article, by the end of the class period
there were well over 1000 tally marks on the white board. Presumably, the
teachers’ intent was to stress that every tally mark meant a distraction, an
interruption in their education. That interruption involved not only the
student who was getting the notification, but also the students around them. The ‘pinging’ and ‘buzzing’ was a distraction for all.
A separate study done in 2018 found that students who use their devices in
class tend to get lower exam scores. It also found that the interruption tended
to cause lower test scores for their peers as well, the ones who were not using
their devices but were trying to study.
The study's conclusion was that constant, mindless distraction prevents people from
developing authentic relationships and suppresses deep thought.
I would bet
every one of us has felt the frustration of having our phone go off, whether for
a call, text or other means, at an inopportune time, and if not our phone, someone
we’re with, or someone nearby. Those distractions are not only frustrating but
sometimes deadly. How many times a week do we see or hear an ad on TV or radio
or see a highway billboard reminding us to NOT text and drive? Odds are some of
you may have been affected from an auto accident caused by someone who was
paying attention to their phone instead of their driving. How many of us have
been out to eat, at a sporting event or walking through the mall and noticed
the number of people who are staring at their phone? Maybe you’ve even been in your
own home and noticed everyone looking at their phone instead of talking to one
another? I once saw a photo of a teen and their grandparent sitting at a table and
the teen’s face was in their phone, totally disregarding their elder. The
caption on the photo said, “Someday, they’re going to regret that.”
I found our nearby high school has a pretty relaxed
policy regarding cell phone use in the classroom. It is left up to the individual
teacher as to whether students may have their phone accessible during class.
Some allow them for use to look up class subjects or take a photo of notes or
lecture slides. They are not to look at notifications until the end of the
class time. I asked if there are abusers of the policy and got the response…“every
day”. With 1500 students and many of them with phones, the administration feel
they would spend all their time addressing those abusers. They instead focus on
trying to drive home the principle that there is a proper time to use the cell
phone and a time to not. Use common sense and do the right thing.
I remember
when the iPhone first came out and several of our kids got one. At the time I
was using an old flip phone for the obvious use of making and receiving calls. I
was amazed at how often the kids were mesmerized by the phone and their
attention was directed solely at it. I said at the time that I wasn’t going to
get one of those phones because of that reason, but as time passed, I too
joined the masses and eventually found myself mesmerized by their capabilities.
They are indeed helpful in many aspects of our lives, one tool taking the place
of many, but letting them become our main focus can be distractions from living a purposeful, sincere life.
They have their place…but at what cost? Do we talk face-to-face with people anymore?
Do we get outside enough for simple exercise and relaxation? Do we read a book
to stimulate our thinking? Would we rather send a text to someone so we can
control ‘when’ we want to be done with the conversation, instead of calling, or
visiting them in person? Have we allowed 'social media' to so affect our thoughts that we can't form our own opinion? How many friendships, and even lives, have been lost because of a post on social media?
I recall the simple days of my childhood in my old hometown.
Back then many home phones used a party line, meaning multiple houses shared
the same phone line. It might ring once for your house, twice for the house
down the street. We rarely used our phone. Our black-and-white TV reception brought in 3 channels on good days, but 2 channels on most, so it was play with siblings and friends, or be bored. What I remember instead is being outside…riding a bike and being gone all day from home with siblings, cousins or friends. We
were playing basketball, baseball, wiffle-ball, red rover, hide-and-seek, inventing
games on the spot, making bracelets and necklaces out of the clover in the yard.
When the weather made us retreat indoors, we found games to play to occupy
hours upon hours.
It’s a different world today. Today’s TVs have hundreds of channel
options to pick from and the games are on the devices the kids hold in their
hands and don’t require interaction with someone else in the room. Why be
outside when we can lose ourselves in our devices while relaxing in our gaming
chair in front of our 70” TV?
It would be unfair to point our fingers at just
the kids. We adults, many of us, are equally guilty. I’m again reminded of the study’s
conclusion: Constant, mindless distraction prevents people from developing
authentic relationships and suppresses deep thought.
We need to do better. All
of us. I’ve read about some families having a rule that when they get together
for a family gathering, the TV is turned off and all phones are put away until the meal is over, or the
gathering has come to a conclusion. I think we need to start that at our house.
It’s a small step…but it’s a step in the right direction.
REMEMBER: One day, you’ll wake up and there won’t be any
more time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. Do it now.
Be talkin’ to ya.
Dan
