If you’re struggling to keep your kid from being a smartphone zombie, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is: You’re not alone. The bad news is: They’re already infected.
There’s a new study out of the University of North Carolina that observed the phone habits of nearly 100 students between the ages of 11 and 18. Those kids all have phones, obviously.
And get this: The number of kids that went the whole school day without using their phone was: 0%. Not one student went the entire day without looking at it.
Students grabbed their phones an average of 64 times during the school day, and the average teen logged more than two hours of screen-time DURING school alone. That’s roughly one-third of their total daily phone use.
High schoolers used their phones more than middle schoolers, averaging about 23 minutes of screen time per hour, compared to roughly 12 minutes for younger students.
They also did some cognitive testing on the older students, and found that frequent phone checking during school was linked to weaker focus and self-control.
For what it’s worth, the sample size and scope were relatively small. All the students were from the same school district in the Southeastern U.S. Also, they were only observed for two weeks.
Some young people ARE taking the initiative to fight the smartphone zombie apocalypse by intentionally putting their phones down to focus on hobbies, and ANALOG ones are becoming popular again.
Things like: Knitting, gardening, needlepoint, pottery, origami, and even blacksmithing. That said, your seventh grader probably isn’t jumping off the bus and immediately hammering out horseshoes.
This is mostly for young adults . . . Gen Z’ers in their 20s, and some younger Millennials.
