The Piedmont Highlander

The Student News Site of Piedmont High School

The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Don’t become sucked into the iPhone vortex

Dont+become+sucked+into+the+iPhone+vortex

In four months, we’ve gotten pretty close. So close, in fact, that when I leave her behind, I feel like a piece of myself is missing. I pat my pockets frantically and check the depths of my backpack. Then I remember that I intentionally left my iPhone at home.

Intention is a complex concept here. Most of my smartphone use lacks intention: the mindless pressing of the home button to see if I’ve gotten a notification, the dazed scrolling through Facebook, the habitual refreshing of my email. My deliberate actions involving my phone usually involve not using it.

I’m not alone in my frequent technology use. 24% of teenagers nationwide use their phones “almost constantly,” according to a 2015 Pew Research survey. At PHS, 88% of students with iPhones use them everyday.

From a logical standpoint, my technology use makes very little sense. I spend hours every week reading online articles, yet I feel like I never have enough time time to immerse myself in real books. I send dozens of Snapchats every day, but I feel too busy to see my friends in person. I mindlessly refresh my email on my phone, and moments later, I sigh about the pervasiveness of work in my life. For someone who thinks so much, it’s remarkable how little I think while glued to a device.

No, I do not hate technology, and I’m not calling for everyone to throw their iPhones off the nearest cliff. Instead, I want to bring a bit more thought to my screentime.

When considering how technology affects my life, some impacts are clearly positive: Facebook is convenient for organizing Piedmont Community Service Crew and group texts are helpful in communicating about newspaper logistics. From a social standpoint, Snapchat allows me to virtually see my close friends who live across the country.Emma Headshot 2

But the screen is a vortex. Somehow, I feel drawn to Facebook stalking my future college classmates and reading pointless Buzzfeed articles.

A few weeks ago, I watched a video about the days of a person’s life measured in jelly beans. 28,835. That’s a ton of jelly beans, a massive belly ache, a huge insulin spike. But after beans are removed for sleeping, eating, working, grooming and basically all necessary tasks, 2,740 beans remain. That’s the time to spend hiking and texting, traveling and Snapchatting, laughing with friends and scrolling through Facebook. And when I think about it that way, my stomach churns more than it would if I ate all of those jelly beans. I have one wild and precious life and I’m spending a substantial portion of it fixated on a screen.

One solution could be to cut myself off entirely, which I’ve done four times. I spent the past three summers in China, where Gmail and most social media sites are blocked. I disconnected more intentionally last spring when I was at a semester-long school in rural Vermont with limited Wi-Fi and no cell service. In addition, I decided not to use Facebook for the time I was there. Because I didn’t see a steady stream of what I was missing at home, I was able to invest fully in the present. And when I called my friends from the landline, the communication was deliberate and valuable.

Despite these technology breaks, I don’t feel like the best solution for me is to disconnect while immersed in my daily Piedmont life. Some of my extracurricular commitments are dependent on technology and I do value some aspects of social media.

Instead, I pledge to become more purposeful in my technology use. As a first step, I will delete the Facebook app from my phone and logout before closing the tab on my computer, which will make the mindless scrolling slightly less convenient. Beyond that, I’ll strive to be intentional regarding when and why I look at screens.

While we’re on the topic, a note about phones: they’re covered in bacteria and other gross stuff. Clean them often. That way you’ll stay healthy when you’re mindfully watching your friends’ Snapchat stories and perusing Instagram.

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