Technological New Year's Resolution by Sierra

Technological New Year's Resolution by Sierra - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

Texts become more important than the person who you are with. Likes become a measure of worth, Our ever-evolving technological society is taking over our lives. Technology has proved to be useful in furthering education. However, too much technology has devastating consequences. With technology at our fingertips, there needs to be a balance. My New Year’s Resolution for 2016 is to drastically reduce the amount of screen time I receive daily. Being my senior year of high school, I want to take advantage of all the memories I make while becoming the best student I can be for college.
Technology provides a world of distractions while trying to study. All of the students I know have their phones right next to them while they are doing homework. If I were to turn my phone off for the time to complete studying, it would take me half the time. At home, it’s understandable for their to be distractions. However, even at school I find the urge to look at my phone during a lecture. The addiction to just checking it multiple times is frightening. My phone creates an escape of my boredom for the class period except I am not paying attention for the test I will fail due to my phone.
At school, I am surrounded by my friends heads down typing on their phone. There is no human interaction. I am guilty of ignoring someone mid-conversation because my phone went off. My phone is my savior when I am in an uncomfortable situation. This prohibits me from going outside my comfort zone. The relationships are not being built. Even when friends decide to go somewhere together, technology interferes. When I go to a concert, I am too concerned with making sure I get a picture to post allowing everyone else to know I am having fun. Instead, I should just be living in the moment because no matter how many poor quality videos I try to make, it won’t be the same. Not every moment in my life needs to be captioned to Instagram. I need to take advantage of my free time to clear my mind in order to focus in school.
To be an outstanding student, one needs ample amount of sleep. Teenagers require approximately nine hours of sleep each night according to studies. I cannot focus in school when I did not get a good night sleep. I wake up at least three times every night checking my phone. I stay up later than I should scrolling through tweets on twitter. The blue light on the phone makes it difficult to fall asleep. Staying up makes focusing impossible and memory poorer producing low test results. Reducing my screen time during the night hours will allow me to reach my full potential at school with an alert mind.
Ultimately, technology has negative effects on my school work. Although, technology does help some of time when used the correct way. A balance of pointless screen time and efficient screen time need to be met. I am going to limit my phone time to only three hours per day compared to the seven hours a day teens spend. I am going to discontinue my phone use during school hours. This will allow me to reach my full potential as the New Year comes. My New Year’s Resolution will continue to provide me with positive results as I start my new journey this year at college.