Are you too "plugged in"?

Dear Escalante Middle School Community,
Early in the week I had a parent share a link to an excellent article about smart phones and social media. Two days later, my mother-in-law shared the same article, and a principal colleague passed on the same link today. Clearly it is resonating with many community members. The basic premise is that the invention of the smartphone, which is heralded as making us more connected, has had the opposite effect.
You can read the full text of the article here: https://www.yourmodernfamily.com/scary-truth-whats-hurting-kids/
The supersonic advancement of digital technology has changed the way the world communicates, and some of those changes result in sad or tragic consequences. In the education world, I do subscribe to the belief that schools are supposed to help students master the dominant information landscape of their time. Rejecting technology puts our students at a distinct disadvantage in the global marketplace. However, it is of utmost importance that we teach our students how to use technology responsibly. There is overwhelming statistical evidence that our society in general has given over too much of their lives to a computer and a phone. A quick search yielded these two stats:
The average person has five social media accounts and spends around 1 hour and 40 minutes browsing these networks every day, accounting for 28 percent of the total time spent on the internet.
The Huffington Post cited research that showed young adults use their smartphones roughly twice as much as they estimate that they do. In fact, the small preliminary study found that these young adults used their phones an average of five hours a day — that's roughly one-third of their total waking hours. Nov 2, 2015
Adults and children alike often spend way too much time on their phones - I count myself among the guilty. Ironically, there is an App for that too! I have recently downloaded an App called Moment so that I can set goals and actively monitor time that I’m spending on my phone in an effort to maximize my time with our students at school and my own kids at home. I encourage you to check out this App for your kids, especially considering that young people with phones spend twice as much time as they realize “plugged in”.
On a side note, this has been a fantastic week of school at EMS. Our kids clearly came back from break ready to learn. Thanks for all you do to prepare your children.

Sincerely,
Jeremy Voss
Escalante Middle School, Principal

https://www.yourmodernfamily.com/scary-truth-whats-hurting-kids/

Published December 1, 2017 Print