The digital age of high school

If some people channeled their hate for technology into something more productive, the rain forest would not be dying, global warming would be an issue of the past, and the national debt would be cut inn half. Maybe that sounds drastic, but it could be true. Most baby boomers want to blame everything on an iPhone. Students have technology at their fingertips, but in school, it is not used effectively nor efficiently, so it has become more of a hurtful component than a helpful one.

Schools in the 21st century take  bullying seriously. School-wide assemblies push the same message whether in middle school or high school: do not push around the chubby boy or make fun of the girl with glasses.

Bullying is going to happen; it is a hard road to ignore. Teachers and other adults mix their messages so much; it becomes like that twisted pair of headphones at the bottom of your book bag. Either you are weak for not telling, or you are weak for telling and then you are labeled a tattletale. Some think getting bullied builds character, but how can it?  Getting called names hurts, and when you do get the courage to speak up, if nothing is done, you feel like your are being punished again–for doing what they teach us to do:  speak up!

This is the age of phones and social media. All the mean names disappear after ten seconds and the DM’s are unsent. Go to a counselor with no proof of something that did not happen on school campus, they treat it like it did not even happen. “Try ignoring them” sums up the amount of work most will do; however, a block button can only work so many places:  Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr, Facebook, and as many pages as you desire. Kids may not steal your lunch money or give you a wedgie, but what they can do is give you years of psychological damage.  Kids are mean, and they are only getting meaner.

It is not just students who abuse the power of the iPhone.  Teachers do it, too. A small handheld device that is prone to dying does not mean anything more should be expected from a student. Do not rely on students’ phones for everything they do. A YouTube video will not teach students everything they need to know about a subject; sometimes they need the physical explanation, and that is okay.

“I know me having a phone gives teachers a chance to overload me with work. Just because I can look the answer up online doesn’t mean that I can do a 100 page study guide in a night,” Tabitha Wright, sophomore, said.

This does not mean phones and school cannot coexist successfully. College students spend more than 1000 dollars a month on books; music is a proven method to help concentration according to a John Hopkins study at education.jhu.edu. It is not difficult to modify these things to the standards they need to be at, it just takes a little work, more than anyone is willing to put in. We need to care about this because this is our future, and there is only going to be more technology. We need to deal with it rather than fight it.