Whether Using Electronics like Cell Phones Affects Students' Ability to Learn - Essay Example

Topic: Whether using electronics like cellphones affects students' ability to learn? In our modern world there are many temptations for our children provided by technological development. If in the past playing in the street was the main entertainment for our children, today they prefer to watch TV and play games on computers and other electronic gadgets. Children have had an opportunity to use different types of electronics in their studies as well as on their social functions. The given paper will prove that mobile phone impose negative influence on students’ ability to study. First of all, use of various electronic gadgets by students contributes to wastage of huge amount of their time. According to Ritchtel, children spend a lot of time while using electronic gadgets for entertainment and socializing (Ritchtel, 2012). This is true because it is a normal occurrence to find students spending a lot of time while communicating to their counter parts using electronic gadgets such as mobile phones. For instance, many students have joined at least one or two social websites where they can easily link up with other people in the same websites to share different types of information. Such websites contribute to time wastage, because students become addicted to communicating and exchanging information via the social websites platform. Additionally, students are tempted to communicate with friends while still carryout constructive activities hence leading to time wastage. According to ProCon, studies have revealed that on average, members of social networking websites take about “20 to 25 minutes on average to return to the original task” after responding to a new online message (ProCon, 2012). This indicates that students waste a lot of time cumulatively hence affecting their academic performance negatively. The use of electronic gadgets for watching videos and other kinds of information diverts student focus from their studies in addition to ruining their moral behavior. The content of many videogames is immoral and psyche of children can be damaged For instance, there are many website companies that promote socially unacceptable contents and products. Therefore, many students who have access to Internet are exposed to such information hence ruining their morals. Moreover, access to computers and television has also exposed students to information that can be detrimental to their moral behavior. Children loose their interest to study, it seems boring to them and they try to avoid learning activities trying to spend more time playing games. Games are attractive, because they contain much of the content that is very interesting for young people, because they are too young to watch sexual or criminal scenes. Such information diverts student’s attention from their studies According to Ritchtel, studies have shown that children spent to a tune of 11.5 hours every day in using various electronic gadgets such as television, computer and mobile phones (Ritchtel, 2012). This means that such children do not have enough time to spend in other activities like field activities that have been shown to contribute positively to their mental development. According to Fischetti, most of the electronic gadgets including cell phones, WiFi routers and Bluetooth transmitters emit radiations with frequencies similar to those of the electromagnetic spectrum (2011). Such radiations are not good to human beings because they can cause serious health effects. Using electronic gadgets all the time children develop abnormally (Galinsky). It imposes negative influence on their psychological state. Children become ill-tempered and irritable that negatively influences their ability to learn and attention span. According to DeGaetano, “The normal course of human brain development naturally leads to a well-developed attention span. Let's make sure we give our children brain-compatible activities on a regular basis, no matter how challenging that is for us in a media age. If parents and educators start mimicking the unreality of the visual media, we have no one but ourselves to blame when our children cannot effectively deal with their reality” (DeGaetano). Another negative effect of increased electronic use by students is the reduction or lack of social skills. Social skills are very essential for students to improve their performance whether in academics or other activities. This is because social skills enable the students to develop bargaining power through effective associations with other people in the society. For instance, students with good social skills are able to interact with other students in group discussions as well as have the courage of asking for clarification of topics they do not understand while studying. This way, such students stand a better chance to perform excellently in their academic activities. However, consistent use of electronic devices makes students to lack essential social skills because they rarely come in face-to-face contact with other people. It is a common knowledge that face-to-face contact enables people to understand social cues and body language presented by other people. Therefore, it is important for students to reduce their level of electronic gadget use in order to develop their social skills, which are essential for their success in education and life after school. On a rather interesting note, excessive use of electronic gadgets by students affects their academic performance by making them to have poor sleeping habits. Having enough sleep time is a physiological requirement that enables people to be effective in their thought process. This means that it is important for students to have enough sleep time in order to enable their minds to function effectively in classes. However, it has been demonstrated that people addicted to use of electronic gadgets constantly stream information into their up to late in the night. This makes them to have in adequate sleep hence not addressing the physiological needs of their body and mind. As a result, students with such habits are unable to pay enough attention to their studies in the following day. Consequently, such habits if adopted by students can affect their academic performance negatively. Finally, increased use of electronic gadgets by students affects their academic performance negatively by affecting their social health through cyber bullying. Cyber bullying can be described as a process in members of online social media websites are intimidated or threatened by use of online messages by other people. This is a common occurrence especially to elementary students. This affects their emotional stability in several ways that ultimately affect their academic performances in school. For instance, students may be threatened by their colleagues through online messages hence making them to fear attending classes or even not concentrate on studies whenever they attend classes. This leads to poor academic performance because such students find it hard to understand various topics taught by their tutors. The conclusion can be made that increased use of electronic gadgets by students has several disadvantages that affect their academic performance negatively. Of more significance, it is evident from the above discussion that electronic gadgets can pose serious health effects to students who consistently use them for various purposes. Therefore, it is important for parents and educational institutions to regulate use of electronic gadgets by students in order to boost their academic performance in addition to helping the students to observe health etiquettes such as being involved in physical activities like sports. DeGaetano, Gloria (n.d.) Visual Media and Young Children's Attention Spans. 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