“Tiktok pulls me in,” said Hayden Lucca, 14, of the Dolphins team.
RCMS students struggle with managing their time on their phones due to their addiction to social media platforms like Tiktok.
Reports from National Library of Medicine.gov shows that the average teen spends seven hours and 22 minutes on their phone a day. That has increased by two hours since 2015, and there has also been a rise in social media and technology.
Your everyday performance starts with your sleep. However, students like Rashi Lohiya, an eighth-grader on the Voyagers team, say that it’s hard with a phone in the room. Studies from Health Matters suggest that kids shouldn’t have access to their phone in the bedroom while they sleep. A lack of sleep can affect a students’ performance in school.
“My phone affects the amount of sleep I get,” said Rashi, “because even when I try to go to bed around 9 to 10 p.m. I usually end up staying up scrolling until 11 to 12.”
With a high level of screen time, the user of the phone will feel addicted to their phone and feel like they’re missing something when going without it for more than a short period of time.
“I feel like I’m always looking for my phone and I always want it near me or else I feel slightly uneasy,” said Hayden.
A similar problem goes on with seventh-grader Nihira Anuje of the Legacy team.
“I feel isolated from other people and I feel like I’m missing out on things going on online when I don’t have my phone with me,” she said.
Based on a survey, RCMS students say that they go on their phone to relax, or as Ms. Amy Allen, English teacher of the Legacy team says, to be numb to things.
“Not to numb things in an unhealthy way,” said Ms. Allen. “it’s kind of like when you want to smell a bunch of fragrances of it at the department store and then you smell some coffee beans in between because coffee beans neutralizes your nose before you smell another one.”
Based on a survey, RCMS students say that they spend the majority of time on their phones scrolling through and interacting on social media. But they have also found ways to reduce screen time. Rashi says it helps to set a screen time limit on her phone.
“Putting my phone downstairs to charge it at night while I sleep so I’m not tired when I wake up can help reduce my screen time and help me get better sleep,” Rashi said.
Based on a form that was completed by 36 RCMS students, at 75 percent, the most popular app to go on is Tiktok. Tiktok is an app with videos posted publicly by others, designed to have endless scrolling to keep you online.
“I feel like if I didn’t have Tiktok I would sleep a lot earlier and I’d also be off my phone a lot more during the day,” said Hayden, “once I get on the bus after school it’s the first app I open especially when I’m bored.”
Tiktok is a big cause for attachment to your phone, but there are many other reasons.
“I’m attached to my phone a lot because it’s my main form of communication because I text family and friends and it’s also my main form of entertainment because without it I get bored,” said Rashi.
Ms. Allen believes that people on the internet only show you their highlight reels, which makes for a false sense of perfection that others compare themselves to.
“You shouldn’t be living anyone else’s life, you should be living your own life,” she said.
