The growth of technology in our lives is generally viewed as a positive thing. From boosting our education to assisting us in the workplace, it seems like there are no downsides to it. However, one teacher in Oregon is now speaking out about students being glued to their phones. She argues screen time and technology is having a negative impact on children, given how easily accessible it is. And experiencing it firsthand, as a teacher, she may be onto something.
The teacher, who goes by @emaroadkill on TikTok, explains in a video what it’s like to teach her kids in Oregon. She starts off by saying, “First of all, the kids have no ability to be bored whatsoever. They live on their phones and they’re just fed a constant stream of dopamine from the minute their eyes wake up in the morning until they go to sleep at night.”
She argues not constantly being on their phones at school makes them experience withdrawal—“like addicts,” the teacher says. According to emaroadkill, it makes the students super emotional, and the smallest things can set them off.
Emaroadkill then goes on to say standing in front of the children to teach is like teaching zombies. It has made teaching a more difficult experience for her and many others. She said, “They’re looking at me but they’re not there.”
She continues, “They have a level of apathy that I’ve never seen before in my whole career. Punishments don’t work because they don’t care about them.” She also said that she believes they don’t care about their grades or college in many instances. That’s a shame, too; Oregon has OSU if students are pursuing engineering or agriculture.
Who does this teacher pin the blame on for these trying times? She claims that it’s not the teachers, but that the issue sometimes starts at home. She also said, “It might be our capitalistic society’s fault,” to which she may be onto something.
How easily accessible cell phones and media is to children can definitely be problematic. By always being ‘plugged in’ when it comes to screen time and technology as a whole, it can certainly impact a child’s health.
Viewers and Commenters Are On Her Side
Commenters agree that it can be both a positive and a negative thing. General consensus is that children have fewer interests. However, few schools present interesting subjects outside of what the state mandates.
In Oregon, as is all of the US, public schools are funded locally, by the state, and federally. And if a school doesn’t get much in local funding, the school and, ultimately, the kids suffer.
One commenter made a great point. It isn’t just the kids that are stuck to their phones:
Another commenter think it’s beyond Oregon, beyond the US, and is a problem all over the time:
In the end, moderating screen time is key. Not to mention proper use. It can be an awesome tool for learning new things and exploring interests, but so is spending time with family. It’s also important to remember teachers are over-worked and underpaid. And it wouldn’t hurt if the school system was reinvented.
