Shut Down Your Screen Week

Imagine having to turn off all electronics and not being able to use it for a week. Technologies, such as the Internet, have provoked questions about the effects it has to students overtime. Although Internet users have become dependent to the internet, schools should not participate in national “Shut Down Your Screen Week” because the Internet is an exceptional source of information, the Internet is used for instant communication, and Internet users have shown increased signs of social interactions.

Technology has been around for decades and has been improving and developing ever since. Currently, the school board is debating whether or not the students and the staff should participate in “Shut Down Your Screen Week.” This is a national movement where nobody may use any electronic media for an entire week. In our generation now, modern technology is simplifying our lives to make it easier and better. This is the reason why it is almost everywhere. It is in homes, in our work, and in our schools. Although some individuals might argue that too much technology is bad for us, we should not participate in “Shut Down Your Screen Week,” because technology is able to help children become more interested in learning, can improve student’s skills, and it can also make work for teachers easier.

Do you really think that participating in “Shut Down Your Screen Week” is going to be beneficial for students, or do you think that a whole week without the students having their cell phones could affect them in a negative way? Some students may think this is a bad idea because they feel it will affect them negatively. While other students can see this “Shut Down Your Screen Week” as a great opportunity. Although some students may see participating in this week as a bad idea because they do not want to give up their electronic media for a week, other students see where this good be a good idea. This is a good idea because it prevents distraction, helps to promote deeper thinking, and encourages students to be more social.

If students are forced to turn off their phones for one week, then the teachers and administrators should be forced to turn off their touchscreen laptops, and their Smart Boards, and all electronics too. I do not believe that my school should participate in the national “Shut Down Your Screen Week”.

There is a constant stream of technology in every direction. Everyday life revolves around technology, which has generously influenced today’s generation in many positive and negative ways. Students have the world at their fingertips. Anything can be found with a swipe of a finger or a click of a button. They want the newest phones, tablets, laptops, and other gadgets, while parents struggle to keep their children’s attention. Students cannot go a minute without their phones, let alone a week. Therefore, many schools plan to participate in “Shut Down Your Screen Week,” which is a week where students would unplug from technology. Bayless High School should not enforce the national “Shut Down Your Screen Week” because technology allow students to interact with others easily, to gather information quicker, and to help increase brain activity for users.

Parents and teachers in our local school district have proposed that the school joins a movement called “Shut Down Your Screen Week.” They claim that not using technology for a week and the Internet would enhance learning because it develops your mind better. The contrast that the other side has to that is that the Internet provides fast and quick answers to questions, and has a lot more information and it is accessible much faster and easier. The “Shut Down Your Screen Week” would be good for students to do because it allows to learn more, and not get distracted.

The rate of childhood obesity has raised over the years with the current breakthrough in entertainment technology. The rise in childhood obesity cases has been linked to the over usage of entertainment technologies. There was a study done by the CDC showing that children aged 12 to 15 years whom play and or watch 4 or more hours of television or playing video games a lot of which were obese. Very few children that were over that threshold of obesity only 20% of which limited their screen time to 2 hours a day rather than 31% of their regular weight friends.

In today’s society, smart phones are a part of a student’s average, everyday life. No matter what people are doing, they find time to look at their phone and make a call, read a text, check e-mails, or search something on Google. Even though people find so many uses for them throughout the day, they are a controversial subject to talk about in their use in the classroom. Many schools have policies strictly prohibiting the use of smart phones in school. For schools to ban the use of smart phones is a major mistake. They only look at cell phones as a distraction to students, and don’t understand that this generation is dependent on the technologies of today. What educators need to do is ask themselves

“A study at the University of California, Irvine, found that people interupted by email reported significantly increased stress compared with those left to focus. Stress hormones have been shown to reduce short-term memory, said Gary small, a physiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles”. People that are always on your their computers and electronics have been shown to cause stress and lose focus. No screen week is a nation week in which kids, adults and teens of any age should shut down their screens and to go outdoors and do something more productive than being on electronics all day. There are many reasons why schools should participate in shut down your screen week.

Does your school want to participate in “Shut down your screen” week? “Shut down your screen” week is when all the students in a school don’t bring their phones to school for one whole week. Think about how many accidents can happen in a week. You won’t be able to call your parents through your phone. What if you have homework to do on line, and you’re participating in this event? Let’s say your teacher scheduled a day to use the computers, and it happened to fall on the day of the event, you won’t be able to use the computers anymore.

How much time do you spend using technology? Shut down your screen week is when people agree not to use technology for a week. Shut down your screen week is a good idea because technology can be a distraction to many families that result in a loss in communication.

There might be an event that students of Bullis Charter School called, “Shut Down your Screen Week.” We, the students are debating if this event will benefit us or not. The whole school will not use their electronics at all for an entire week. Students should have access to technology at all times because in a case of emergency, they need to call for help. Without technology they will not be able to do this. There will be cases where students will need to use technology somehow from either saving a student’s life, to finishing a project at school. We should keep using technology on a daily basis. Technology can help us in education, communicating, and getting more creative ideas/solutions.

According to Terry Heick, the founder and director of TeachThought, “Many teachers believe that smartphones and tablets, with internet connectivity and text messaging services, can merely be a source of distraction for students as opposed to a learning tool” (Heick). Curious administrators in schools see the technological advancements as an opportunity to change learning styles even though there are many ways that technology in the classroom can be negative. Though technology allows access to ebooks and other helpful sources, it also enables cheating that does not advance learning, but instead creates a wall that deters and prohibits students from learning to their full potential and abilities. Before implementing technologies into the classroom, schools should consider that technology can cause a lack of writing skills, limitations on problem solving abilities, and distractions because of short attention spans.

How many people do you know that do not have some sort of electronic device? The definition of electronic device is “an object that is controlled by a computerized system” ("Merriam-Webster.com", 2015). In the society that we live in today electronics are becoming a necessity in school and sometimes in the work environment. This raises the question of why are we becoming dependent upon electronics, when they may end up hurting us academically. Students who spend more time on electronic devices may spend less on homework or other assignments that require more attention and thought out responses. Schools are starting to make a lot of assignments due through email and or a school sponsored website (ex. blackboard). There are

Furthermore, as communication and writing skills diminish our school performance begins to be affected. The entertainment of mobile devices distracts nearly every student in the classroom whether it is texting, or playing games, or surfing the net. Mobile devices also play a big role in communication by making it possible for students to easily communicate with each other when they should not be. The power to communicate with virtually anyone is a major distraction. Some teens are so attached to their technological devices they sleep with phones on and wake up to answer text messages they get at night. When kids have cell phones in their classrooms they are extremely distracted from what is actually being taught. They are looking down and playing their games or going on social networking sites instead of listening to their teachers. With the constant distraction of technology and teens short attention spans reading and writing skills have suffered significantly and vocabularies are shrinking. This relates to their education and their ability to do well in school. Another problem is that technology provides students with the ability to explore numerous search engines for any problem they come across and copy them word for word. It seems that students don’t spend time thinking; they are simply repeating information instead of learning concepts and ideas. When students do this, they do not actually learn the