Being a student means having responsibilities of studying, completing homework, classwork, and passing exams. Students are expected to focus on their studies and work hard towards success.

But what happens when social media is thrown into the mix? Teens and young adults often use social media and integrate it into their everyday routines.

Students are often on the internet, even in class, trying to stay updated with their friends and the latest trending jokes. According to Phys.org, 76% of American teens use Instagram, 75% use Snapchat, and 47% of teens use Twitter. Time magazine found that Americans collectively check their phones about 8 billion times a day. This distraction could possibly be a huge factor for the decrease of a student’s performance.

iSchool English teacher, Ms. Coughlin, talks about her students in class saying, “they [students] always feel a need to check their phones so they don’t miss anything,” she says, while also mentioning that she catches her students on their phones every day.

“Deeper thinking demands focusing attention for extensive periods of time. If you are constantly detracted you can’t dedicate the focus necessary for higher thinking in critical analysis,” Coughlin then continued to say. “You need to be focused on a specific thing. Constant distractions make students take longer to get to the point. It’s science, not opinion.”

According to Pewinternet.org, statistics show that about 73% of American teenagers own smartphones . The use of smartphones and social media impacts the academic performance of students. Addiction to phones lead to procrastination and the lack of motivation to get assignments done. Students often spend a large amount of time on their phones and even use them when they are meant to be doing work.

NYC iSchool Freshman Lily Krug says she uses the Internet more for school purposes. She spends about six hours a day on the Internet, but most of the time it’s for online school work.

She also states that she can go without the Internet for a while. “I feel like someone who is addicted to the Internet cannot go without it.” She also says, “if I’m not online, or if I’m in my country house without wifi, I feel fine without it.”

iSchool sophomore Hannah Coleman spends about 16 hours a day online, but she does not consider herself addicted to the Internet. “I know I have the ability to turn my phone off.”

However, she does consider it to be a distraction: “it distracts me during class sometimes and stops me from getting my work done.”

Coleman believes that if she did not have a smartphone she “would genuinely die.” However, she thinks not having a phone would not impact her academic life, saying she still would not pay attention in school. “Phones don’t depict how invested you are in education.”

The debate between the positive and negative effects of social media on student behaviour has been going on for quite some time. Looking from a positive perspective, students can share their creativity through social media and can even meet new people from all over the world. On the other hand, most students lose motivation and begin to procrastinate, making them become lazy with their work.