As a teenager who has been raised in the digital age, I often find myself drawn to my phone. I pull it out whenever I have free time in class and mindlessly scroll through apps like TikTok. The habits that I have fostered have caused my parents to become worried that I am going to “rot my brain” at a young age, so they have installed screen time and downtime restrictions.
My app limits consist of an hour on TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. The screen time I get on my phone shuts off at 10 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends.
Through conversations with other students at Camas High School (CHS), I have found that I am not alone in the fact that restrictions are successful in stopping constant clicking on various applications.
Many CHS students have varying limits on their phones. Some are allowed up to four hours of screen time per day, while others have more specific amounts for different applications.
These restrictions are primarily placed by parents rather than students. This often makes these restrictions feel like more of a nuisance because it is another thing that parents get to monitor their kids with. Some feel it is more beneficial for them to be in charge of their technology usage.
“Knowing when to stop looking at stuff [is a type of] discipline especially when you are setting [restrictions] for yourself,” CHS sophomore Ryann Eckhart said. “Our lives are on social media [most of the time] so setting limits is a necessary break.”
Getting the notification that your phone will stop allowing you to view apps in five minutes can be an annoyance. However, many find it crucial to get off of the screens and involve yourself with what is going on around you.
“When my screen time is off it forces me to be productive which I enjoy. If I have four hours [of screentime] I will not use it all at [once] instead I will spend more time with my family and will do my homework,” CHS sophomore Lucy Baker said.
Before this generation of iPhones, the methods for restricting kids from always being on the internet looked different.
“The technology was not quite as developed when my kids were roughly your age, but we did try to shut off the WiFi early on [in their lives] at a certain time, “ CHS humanities teacher Sam Greene said. “This seemed to take care of the issues with [always being on devices], so they did not have a whole lot of restrictions as they got older.”
As irritating as screen time restrictions can be, they are necessary to become more involved in the world around us. I will continue to groan and complain about the single hour of TikTok I have per day, but in the end, I know that my parents only have it there so I do not miss out on the important moments of my life that are not on screens.
