The Benefits Of Cell Phones For Students Free Essay Example

In a study conducted in 2019, one out of every four American children between the ages of 2 and 17 wear glasses or contact lenses (CDC). Many Americans point out cell phones, in the hands of teenagers, as the culprit. However, I do not believe parents should stop giving children phones, on the contrary, I believe, with proper parental guidance, cell phones are essential to students because they can provide them with advantages in and out of the classroom.  

One of the major benefits of cell phones is their ability to keep students connected to friends, family, teachers, and emergency services. Cell phones allow teenagers around the world to socialize and reach out to other like-minded people. For example, social media or apps like UNBLIND, can connect users with others who share hobbies, interests, or talents. Likewise, cell phones also allow people to keep in touch with family members in different time zones or countries. Next, students can use cell phones to contact teachers with questions about homework, grades, or absent work instead of waiting for the next school day. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, cell phones are extremely important in emergencies like, earthquakes, fires, or accidents because students can easily contact emergency services if necessary. Without cell phones, contact would be difficult, and in today’s digital world, disconnectedness hinders success.  

Additionally, cell phones have many advantages from an educational stand point. Cell phones make real-time collaboration easy through instant graded quizzes with Google Forms, Microsoft Word documents that allow multiple users to edit in real-time, or tiny SD cards that can hold Gigabytes of storage on a single device. Beyond school, cell phones allow students who are struggling academically to use tutoring services such as Paper or one-on-one online courses through Zoom. Finally, cell phones provide students with a quick and easy way to access study recourses namely dictionaries, thesauruses, calculators, and current news.  

However, like many things, there are downsides to teens with cell phones: teachers often report difficulty in keeping students with phones on task, parents report their children spend too much time on their phones than in face-to-face interactions, and doctors report blue light emitted from mobile devices may negatively impact users’ eyes. Yet there is a solution; responsibility. Teachers can stress the importance of education, or they can implement "No Cell Phone" polices with punishments. Students can be graded on participation in the classroom to guarantee they stay alert and focused lest they receive a failing grade. As for parents, although children may be addicted to social media, YouTube, or video games, setting alarms, timers, or reminders through calendar apps can be used to keep children on task and aware of the time they are spending. Parents can also limit screen time through a phone’s settings or extensions like Social Fever which sets maximum time limits on cell phone apps. And doctors, blue light is a serious topic because it can lead to blurry vision, eyestrain, dry eye, macular degeneration, and cataracts (Webmd). However, changing the settings to emit a “night light” or warmer tone in dark areas or at night helps reduce the strain on your eyes. Blue light filters are also common to find and often come with glasses or phones. Ultimately, cell phones are a great way to test your children on their responsibility; their responsibility to do their homework first, their responsibility to stay on task, and their responsibility to take a break from their phones.  

Therefore, I believe cell phones are crucial tools for students to have because they can be used to effectively keep in close contact with people around the world, provide information for academics, and teach teenagers the importance of responsibility. So, cell phones are very influential in the success of our lives because it teaches young teenagers many important life lessons: being sociable, effective research, time management, and responsibility. Thus, it comes as no surprise that an American census, conducted in 2020, found the median earning of Americans increased by 6.9% from the previous year.