Cellphones have become the central objects of our lives. Without them, paying, traveling, socializing, and even eating are less convenient. However, the downsides of using cellphones, though perhaps less known, are prevalent and include poor sleep and a decline in productivity. On May 28th, Mr. Pardy, a psychology teacher, presented information about the very real problem of cellphone dependence to the 10th grade class.

Mr. Pardy started by asking a series of questions: how many students spend three hours on their phone per day? Four? Five? Or even six? By answering these questions, the students realized their increasing dependence on their phones. By including the latest professional psychological research, Mr. Pardy introduced two main downsides of over-using phones: a lack of authenticity and poor sleep hygiene.

Students tend to focus too much on establishing their profile on social media, which in turn decreases their focus on friendships and face-to-face interactions in real life. Without sincere conversations, friends may become more distant and aloof towards each other.

Another harm that phones can cause is poor sleep. Blue light emitted by cellphones influences the release of melatonin, which is a hormone that controls the quality of our sleep. Because surfing the internet on one’s phone is an easy task that often brings instant pleasure, students often tend to focus on their screens before sleep. This, in turn, will dramatically affect the quality of sleep, which will lead to poor performance in school and learning the next day.

Finally, Mr. Pardy compared cellphone dependence to addiction, which prove to be very similar. Mr. Pardy pointed out that although cellphone addiction does not exist, we should all be aware of the increasing dependence that we have towards our phones and take measures to avoid spending hours and hours on meaningless tasks. Starting from today, we should put down our phones, go out, discover the beauty of nature, and capture the passion that we want to pursue.

（Written by 10(3) Wendy Tan       Pictures by Dandan Zhou       Supervised by Daniel Hartmann and Dandan Zhou）