Technology has become an important tool for education, especially during the pandemic. While students both at home and in school are advised to use these tools for educational purposes, this opportunity allows them to become easily distracted by social media. 

Many students this year have developed a social media addiction, and sophomore Daisy Bustos is one of them. Like several of her online peers, Bustos is tempted to point the camera away from her face and scroll through Instagram. When the teacher’s voice becomes nothing but mumbles to Bustos’ ears, Bustos looks to her phone for entertainment.

“I have found that at times, I am able to fall into the spiraling vortex of cat videos and memes,” Bustos said. “It’s just so easy sometimes to get sucked into that world and stay like that for a good while.”

Even though social media is very amusing, it can consume a large part of a teenager’s day. According to a report by Pew Research Center in 2019, 60% of teens spend an average of nine hours a day online, and 41% of those teens admitted that social media made up a large portion of that time. 

“I stay on social media for about a good three hours, maybe even more, per day,” sophomore Lylian Mai said. “It’s a great way to communicate with my friends, but it negatively affected my grades.”

Both Bustos and Mai, along with thousands of other students across the country, continue to be concerned about the harmful effects of their addiction. Unlike her fearful peers, sophomore Realin Baird finds it easy to make time for both her education and Tik Tok, which is arguably the most entertaining social media platform of the year, according to Baird herself.

“My addiction to social media, especially Tik Tok, has gotten worse, but this hasn’t really affected my grades since I finish my work on time,” Baird said. “I also started to read more books, and the more I read, the less I’m on social media.”

All of these girls have found themselves agreeing with the same conclusion; the less time spent on social media, the better. With this new conclusion, Bustos urged herself to stay off of social media -and the phone completely- while doing homework. Although Bustos has plenty of motivation to combat her never-ending boredom of homework, it’s only temporary. In light of this new problem, Bustos looks up other ways to help herself avoid the distraction.

“I think I should encourage myself to stay away from my phone and finishing my work,” Bustos said. “After that, I can get on [social media] as a reward. This solution can help me build a healthier work mindset.”