Cell Phone Use on Academic Performance

The ringing of a telephone is something a person hears every single day of their life from the second you wake up to the second you go to sleep and sometimes even in between. Last week I found myself sitting in my 1000 student lecture hall scrolling through my Twitter news feed, exiting that app opening up my facebook and scrolling through that news feed, then exiting out of this app and opening up instagram once again scrolling through my news feed on this application, then my phone starts buzzing and I have new text messages so I naturally went to read them and respond. All this time I just wasted looking at stuff that will still be there an hour from now I realized that I hadn't been taking notes for half the class period and clearly hadn't retained any of the information my professor had just presented us with. What did I miss the professor say? could it of been material that was going to be on the upcoming test? or an answer to the homework assignment? I found myself wondering a few things; Why do I feel the need to incessantly check my phone and am I the only college student who thinks this? What would happen if I got off all my social networks and put my phone away while I was in the class room and even outside of the class room, would this positively affect my study habits and overall academic success?

The beginning of the week I found to be the easiest part I put my cell phone in my backpack during class hours and when I was at home studying I put my phone on silent, so I wouldn't hear it go off and be interrupted while I was studying. As I did this outside of the classroom during my study hours I found that I was able to focus better, sustain my engagement, I had better concentration, and it increased my ability to have a deep attention on the topic I was focusing on. The things I achieved reflected upon what P. Magolda and M. Magolda Authors of the book Contested Issues in Student Affairs: Diverse Perspectives and Respectful Dialogue "users are undermining their capacity to focus, build awareness, and sustain engagement. Internet use decreases ones ability for deep attention." As I put away my cell phone and eliminated the use of the internet I achieved the things Magolda said the internet has on studying.. The author Denny Carter of the article "Social Media Has Negative impact on Academic Performance" states that "students who spent the most time using social media had fewer academic behaviors, such as completing homework and attending class, lower academic confidence and more problems affecting their school work, like lack of sleep and substance use." I found to have the opposite affect since I gave up social networking I attended all my classes, even the ones without mandatory attendance, I had all my homework done in a timely manner so I wasn't staying up late and in result being tired for class, I also found that I was more engaged in my smaller classes, and by engaged