According to The Conversation, “Teens spend an average of 8½ hours on screens per day, and tweens – that’s ages 8 to 12 – are not far behind, at 5½ hours daily.”

A school day is around 7 hours, not counting extracurricular activities. Add an hour to that and that’s the average screen time for teens. On average, they spend a third of their day every day on their phones, leaving one-third for school, and one-third for sleep and such.  

Teens are addicted to their phones. This addiction causes problems at school with teachers and parents. Students get distracted in class, play on their phones, and text people instead of paying attention to the lessons and classes. 

“I think students are way too involved with their phones,” says Mrs. Leslie McNeely, an English teacher at UMA. “They should be spending on their homework instead.

“Because of the amount of time they are spending on their phones, they are getting less sleep than they should, and their grades are getting bad. Instead of focusing on homework, they are watching stuff like TikTok,” says Mrs. McNeely.

“They are obsessed with their phones and feel the need to always have it with them, that’s why we have a phone ban in classes. But even then, they work their way around it and just hide their phones. Of course, I understand having a day to yourself and sitting back watching TikTok, but doing it every day can be bad and unhealthy,” continued McNeely.

Even students see that cell phone use is starting to become an issue. “I feel like the amount of screen time teens get in a day is completely outrageous because we as teens should be getting physical exercise and not just be staring at screens. They should join some kind of sport,” Sophie Rodriguez stated. 

Teachers find teens being on their phones an issue, especially at school. Since teens get so obsessed with their phones, they usually feel the need to always have them with them.