Do Digital Devices Cause Bad Grades?

Digital devices has taken a big role in our daily lives from taking a photo to browsing the web. Some of us use our digital devices too much. Since we have digital devices, people spend a lot of their time indoors. Digital devices have influenced us in many ways sometimes it has controlled us. Digital devices could be stopping us from doing homework as other distractions on our laptops could distract us such as games and social media. It seems that many people start to go off task like going to social media when they do homework. Ms Michetti a teacher at UWCSEA said “They are definitely influencing people's lives. I think they amplify what is already there -- if poor habits were already there, they make them worse. If good habits were already there, they make them even better. However, they can also provide opportunities for people to improve their lives if they approach them with the right kind of self-management habits. I don't necessarily think the devices influence people's lives as much as I think they prompt people to influence their own lives.”

It all started when the most used social media was released. These were Facebook and Twitter too begin with. Facebook was released on February 4th 2004 and Twitter was released on 21st March 2006. After all this was created, many people were hooked up to these social media and it made a big impact to us. Then one day smart phones were introduced to these social media. These apps were made mobile so people could see what others were up too even when they weren’t at home. The phone is a really useful tool but now that social media has kicked in, more and more people have been addicted to their phones. 19% of all adult internet users use twitter in January 2014, and 71% of online adults use facebook in September 2013, all this data was conducted by pew research center. Although a teacher that I interviewed disagreed and said that the use of technology for a long period of time doesn’t cause bad grades. Ms Michetti said “I don't actually think it's the devices themselves that lead to poor studies. But if there are poor study habits to begin with, then access to the device can make it worse. So it's very important, IMO, to learn good study habits independent of digital devices. We need to learn to work with them because let's face it, they're not going away. And they can make our lives easier if we know how to manage them. Digital devices can actually improve study habits, but you first have to get the habit in practice before adding / using the device. It's really about using your mind and thinking skills and not expecting a device to do that for you, because it can't.”

In a class of 20 that was surveyed the results of these students were that 7 out of 20 people used 2-3 hrs of digital devices per day and over 3 hours of digital devices per day. Researchers from the Miriam Hospital’s Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine have conducted research and have proven that over use of social media could result to poor grades in school. As many you can see from the survey conducted in the class of 20, more students use 2-3 hrs and over 3 hrs of digital devices daily. These people could have a potential of getting poor marks if they don’t use the time spent on digital devices effectively.

There are many fun activities that you can do that don’t require digital devices such as socializing with friends, or playing sports / doing outdoor activities and many more. Doing these activities and finding ways to study without using digital devices not only could make you healthier and smarter but it could also increase your grades in school. You can even socialise without using digital devices like you could go to the park and meet your friends.

Do you think that digital devices could cause your low grades? If most of your time is spent on social media or video games when you need to study. Then yes maybe you could cause your bad grades. If you use this time to study, it could increase your grades as you get the most out of this time. It is ok to play video games and go on social media but it has to be at the right times like on a weekend or a friday.

If digital devices weren’t introduced imagine what the world would be like today, we wouldn’t be able to code games as we need digital devices to do so. The modern discoveries wouldn’t even be known and it would take forever to make produce a product like bread. There would be no machinery to help factory workers jobs easier. Digital devices shouldn’t be used in the wrong way, be responsible with how you use digital devices. Many people can’t control how long and what they do on digital devices. Ms Michetti said “Lots of people. Most of them are teenagers. But I know a few adults too, who struggle to set boundaries for themselves.” As you can see even adults struggle to set boundaries as Ms Michetti said.

Digital devices helps us in many ways, use it responsibly and it could be a useful tool but use it in a bad way, and would turn from your friend into your enemy.

Written by Dylan