It isn’t an exaggeration to say that nearly all students are influenced by social media in some way. Whether it’s owning a private or public social media account to share memories with or using social media to message friends, technology still affects us in one way or another. Although technology comes with a plethora of positive effects, it can be quite the opposite for students. Instead of increasing productivity, social media and technology are leading causes of why so many students lack focus and aren’t at their most productive. Losing focus while studying for tests, getting caught up while browsing for “essay inspiration” or even wasting hours messaging friends for a group project, are all frustrating to students.
Why Exactly Are We Addicted To Our Electronics?
We’ve all heard our parents say “that phone is the reason for your cold”, and even though that might be an absurd exaggeration, there is some truth to constant technology use being harmful. Frequent use of technology is addictive to any user, no matter their age or gender. The technology uses different techniques to steer our attention onto different apps, like constant notifications, reminders, comments, and shares.
With the constant use of social media, our brains are proven to release increased methods of dopamine, a hormone in our brains that, when increased, makes us happier in the moment. As many make the connection to social media and fun, our minds are more drawn towards these tactics, steering us away from what task may be current and important. FOMO and even missing out on helping your friends are reasons for this feeling of anxiety to check social media to arise. This anxiety may also simply be because having many notifications to check feels like a burden, almost like a to-do list. When the constant notifications flood your screen, the anxiety and stress over these notifications get to us and that’s okay; realizing the issue and not making efforts to deal with it however is not okay.
Aside from having notifications nagging us, using social media frequently causes our attention span to decrease. Social media and online content are often filled with short-timed entertainment, getting the message across before our attention span ends. The constant consumption of short and quick content applies back to our academic lives. If we feel unaccomplished and have struggled over learning something not as quickly as we expected, we have the urge to quit and try again later, something that is further increased by the short attention span from social media. These reasons are why our productivity drops while doing assignments and studying, which can take a major toll on our academic lives, but what can we do to combat this?
Decrease Screen Time:
Although it sounds contradictory, several apps are available to help with our focus and get us off our electronics when needed. Setting screen times for apps is a start to gaining back your productivity. Another suggestion to limit additional electronic use is to turn on ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode, which helps avoid seeing the number of notifications you may get. Using specific study time layouts such as the Pomodoro method sets up studying and productivity sessions in cycles that consist of breaks. For more information on how to use the Pomodoro method: check out our article here! For example, turning on ‘Do Not Disturb’ during 25-minute study sessions, then checking notifications for 5, helps limit the spontaneous phone pick-ups that happen throughout the day.
Screen Time And Sleep:
Limiting screen time should apply even after studying, specifically before we sleep. In total, around 80% of teenagers across the globe are prone to using their electronics excessively right before sleep.(1) Not only does this contribute to the overuse of technology, but it also shortens the hours of sleep that you might get, making learning much more difficult in the mornings.
Training The Mind:
In addition, by frequently training your brain with mind games, your productivity could go up. As we see our parents, and even grandparents possibly do crossword puzzles, Sudoku and other games, we are puzzled as to how these could possibly help in the long run. By giving our minds extra problems to solve, as well as, giving it length and time consuming problems, we not only build on our pattern recognition and ability to solve these but also, build a tolerance to solving time consuming problems or activities.
Building A Clean And Helpful Study Space:
Finally, although it’s sometimes a struggle to clean our rooms due to busy and unpredictable day to day schedules, keeping a clean study space is key. With a clean work environment, there are no recurring feelings of anxiety about your environment, leading to less break taken and even less times that you think of picking up your phone. If not possible, going to local cafes and even libraries are helpful. Surrounding yourself in a room with other students all focusing on their own work simulates a class environment, which is ideal to increase your productivity. By having everything you need at your fingertips, whether its a coffee or simply a book from the library, you are met with many additional sources that aid in keeping you focused.
Screen time issues and electronic overuse habits are still hard to break, however, with the right discipline and motivation, breaking this habit is a very possible and attainable goal!
tl;dr
Social media is known to not only increase our anxiety and stress levels, but also shorten our attention spans, leading to an abundance of procrastination and lack of focus. By experimenting with different methods such as using ‘Do Not Disturb’, a variety of study habits, mind games, and a better work space, your productivity could be gained back.