On average, teens tend to spend 7-9 hours on their phones daily. Studies show that this time spent on phones creates anxiety, depression, impulsivity, and increased introversion. To help teenagers, Mr. Hobbs the librarian and Fremont High is hosting a phone challenge with a $1,000 prize pool and the chance to win a $500 amazon gift card, go to Bit.ly/fremontphonechallenge to participate.
In order to participate you have to make certain changes to your phone including:
- Turn on silent mode,
- Delete distracting apps (youtube, instagram, snapchat, reddit, facebook, tiktok, X, BeReal, Pinterest, all games, and streaming apps),
- Reduce total number of apps to five or less on your home screen,
- Turn notifications off except health purposes and phone calls,
- Turn off tap to wake and rise to wake,
- Switch phone to grayscale,
- Demonstrate 1 hour and 30 minutes or less of daily screen time.
Mr. Hobbs addresses student concerns about getting rid of their phones completely by explaining, “It’s not just a complete loss of your phone, it’s just a way to help reduce overall screen time and get students into a more healthy relationship with phones.”
While there is a positive side to having phones on us at all times, such as being able to connect with people who live far away, or staying organized with tasks. There are also several negatives that come with those positives that need to be recognized.
As teenagers, we tend to have toxic relationships with our phones. Being able to connect with people over screens prevents teens from being able to communicate face to face, which is a huge part of creating relationships. It destroys teenagers’ abilities to be present in the moment and we often miss out on one and done opportunities.
Junior student Matthew Blanchard who plans to participate when given the time states that, “It’s a good idea, I think that it will help students be more interactive instead of interacting online.”
Not only does getting off phones create a chance for teenagers to interact with each other face to face, but it offers so much more. Go take this chance to win a $500 dollar amazon gift card or other prizes while making a healthy change to your life. Gain back your creative mindset, and talk to people’s faces, not profile pictures.
Even if you don’t think you can succeed, you should give the Phone Challenge a chance to see how far you can push yourself and maybe win some money for Amazon. Prizes will be handed out at random between now and early May so don’t miss out!
