Look around the halls and classrooms of Chamblee High – or any school for that matter – and you are likely to see students hunched forward, staring intently at the screens of their phones.
No longer are they simply checking for a reply, an update or another notification. Now they are liable to spend prolonged periods of time staring at their phones. Is this a problem? How much time on a phone is too much?
When students at Chamblee were asked to check their screen time, some were surprised, others were not surprised at all, and still others were unaware they could even check their screen time.
“[I think my daily screen time is] between six or eight hours,” said Edwin Ochoa (‘24) before checking his daily screen time average. “It’s eight hours and 23 minutes. That’s not bad.”
“[My daily screen time is ] probably about like six hours,” said Owen Veith (‘24) before checking his screen time. “Eight hours and 50 minutes. I’m so terrible.”
Average Screen Time/Top Apps
The average screen time for students here at Chamblee, taken from a sample of 105 students, is six and a half hours. When asked what these students do on their phones, average responses ranged from social media to texting to schoolwork.
“[I use] Instagram because my best friends are always sending me stuff in there, like Instagram reels,” said Camera Phiol (‘24). “We are always texting in there and sending each other stuff, and that’s literally all. [I also use] Snapchat because I like to send streaks. I text a few people on there [as well]. TikTok because me and my best friend are always sending stuff on there. I just scroll during my free time. Messages because I’m always texting my mom, dad, best friend, and family members. Safari, I’m usually doing research or schoolwork there.”
In this research, the following apps, in order from the most used to least, were the top five most used by students: TikTok, Instagram, Safari, Messages,…
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