There's More to Life Than a Screen - Essay

Editor's Note: This is an essay I wrote for my Language Arts class. Hope you enjoy it!

Whenever I hang out with somebody, there will always be one moment in the span of time we are in the same room where I want to shout at them. For example, me and my friend (I will use the pseudonym “Carl” for every person I mention in order to protect their identity) were on the couch, talking and having, seemingly, a really good conversation. All of a sudden, Carl whips out his phone, stops talking, and completely ignores everything I say after that, for the next two minutes. After a minute and a half I finally said to him, “Sorry, Carl! Sorry that I’m not as interesting as a person in a totally different side of town, sending you stupid pictures of somebody you don’t even know!” Luckily, he understood my rage and slowly lowered his phone. Later that day, after Carl had left, I thought about him as a person. Then I realized: He had poor socialization skills, horrible school marks, and had abysmal athletic skills. All Carl had to do to improve these skills was put away his phone.

Carl is not the only teen in the world that has bad school marks due to his phone. In 2013, the University of Nebraska did a survey of about seven hundred eighty students. They found that ninety-two percent of those students got distracted multiple times by their phone during class. Due to the lack of attention in class, students are not prepared for tests or homework assignments as much as they would be, had they have put their phone down. Furthermore, people may be using their phones to cheat during tests. A nationwide survey, conducted by Common Sense Media in the United States, asked parents if they believe there is cheating via phone in school. Seventy-five percent of them agreed. Cheating on tests or homework assignments does not help you learn more. You cannot figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are in that subject and therefore will not be prepared for future assignments. Using your phone to cheat can result in you failing if you get caught. Another school mark problem created by Carl’s cell phone was all the false information he was getting. A lot of the internet is made up of blogs. In fact, 40% of the websites on the internet are blogs. That information was found on cqpress.com. Ironically, a website on the internet. With all of these blog posts in cyberspace, there is going to be a lot of people that make up information. They may do this to start rumours or fights. Some people spread fake information about countries preparing for war. The reason for this incorrect information varies, but one thing never changes: False information is taking up this generation's minds and they do not realize it.

School marks were not the only problem Carl faced. There was also his socialization skills. I recall, in grade seven, eight and nine, Carl and I walking down the hallways of the school. I tried to start a conversation with him. He kept creating lulls in the conversation, answered all my questions with “Yes”, “No”, or “I don’t know”.  Due to the many hours Carl spent on his phone, he was not used to talking to people in real life. When he would text someone, he would have about a minute or two to reply, and he would have time to think about what he was going to say. In real life however, he failed to be able to reply in under a minute, and thus made the situation awkward. Another socialization problem Carl faced was his inability to make new friends or even decent acquaintances. For example, in grade eight, we went to an event in Clive. He clung to me all day the same way four year old me clung to my teddy bear when it got dark outside. In both cases, somebody was scared because they were surrounded by something they did not understand. Carl’s phone addiction took away the ability for him to adjust to new situations quickly. On his phone, he would be able to just click the “Home” button in order to get away from what was troubling him. In real life however, he was forced to stay in that situation all day. There was no getting out of it.

There was one more problem Carl was facing because of his phone, his athletic ability. For the past three years, there’s been a track meet. Carl always did really bad. His phone got in the way of times he could have been exercising. Because of this, he had a bad mark in Gym class and did a poor job running short distances. Putting away his phone would allow him more time to exercise. He would need to find something to do in order to prevent boredom, and exercise would probably be one of the first things he would try. True, his phone was not the only factor of him having such a small amount of physical activity in a week. He is also overweight. The span of time I have known him - 2009 to this day -his weight has increased incrementally. From what I recall, his weight in 2009 was around ninety pounds. Now, his weight is over one hundred forty. If he got into the habit of lowering his phone a lot more than he is now, he would have time to exercise more. Sure he might not want to at first, but after a while without his phone, Carl might just realize that there are more important things in life-like being healthy-than a credit card sized screen.

In summary, putting away your phone will improve many things in your life. Grades, socialization skills, and health will  be positively affected.. I urge you to put down your phone, even for just half an hour a day. The changes will truly make you realize just how amazing life is, and just how amazing it will be in the future. There is more to life than a screen.