Is social media distracting you?

In today’s generation, the world is getting smaller, while technology is getting bigger.

Social media is intended to be a place to escape, but it has been taken advantage of especially when needing to finish an assignment or homework of any kind. Students take twice as long to complete a homework assignment because of the use of social media, using the phrase “just 5 more minutes” as an excuse, then those 5 minutes turn into 20 minutes, and that turns into an hour. Students are dragged into other subjects on their phones that might be interesting but are irrelevant to their studies.

Is it hard to concentrate on homework without being distracted by social media?

“Yes,” said Senior Hannah Gordon, claiming that at times, her phone can “disconnect [her] from [her] assignments,” and it’s difficult to complete tasks in a timely manner.

Losing focus lengthens the process of finishing an assignment since it takes a while to get back on track after repeatedly checking one’s mobile device. The multiple amount of apps available today have notification updates that include links to videos, blogs, and other media which can lead to taking up hours out of productive time.

In a survey taken of 8 students in Mrs. Manghis’s advisory at Nantucket High School, for example, 50% of the students said “yes,” the other 50% said “sometimes,” and no one said “no,” in response to whether it takes them twice as long to finish an assignment in the presence of social media. This group was also asked how often they used their phone throughout the day: 12% said about “30-60 minutes,” 38% said about “1-2 hours,” and 50% said about “2 or more hours” revealing a large percentage of students facing problems with procrastination.

Another Senior at Nantucket High School, Deana-Rae Weatherly, stated how it can be difficult to stay focused when doing her homework “especially when most of the work [she does] is on the internet.” She felt more likely to check social media, like Twitter and Facebook since she can have “multiple tabs open and can easily switch between them.”

Although social media aids research and makes it easier for students to interact with other students by sharing information and work when it comes to projects, with a click of a button, students could text message, play games and/or see what other people are doing. Checking social media leads to opening a new page, then another, going on and on, taking the attention from the subject students are supposed to be focusing on.

When receiving a notification, it instantly detaches one from their assignment, so the best idea to prevent that is by turning off one’s notifications, according to senior Sydney Strate. Strate’s strategy is “setting a timer for a certain amount of time and taking a break in between. That way [she] can still focus on [her] work but also have a little time to do other things.”

Setting rules such as planning when social media could be used avoids procrastination. Being aware of appropriate times to use a device, and scheduling time to focus on one thing leads to finishing assignments faster and helps to avoid contemplating where that time went.