In life there are always distractions that hold us back. So why would it be any different in school? I’m not trying to say there is a simple answer to why students struggle to stay on track in school. This is obviously a multifaceted issue that involves many factors, but one distractor sticks out to most in Beaver Area High School: technology.

(Oh the irony. The very device which makes the ECHO’s publication possible is one of our biggest potential distractions.)

One Beaver Area teacher said about iPads in school, “The iPads make students more passive note takers, and I really see a value in thinking through your notes and asking questions as you’re taking them. Even I think there’s value in the physical act of writing. When you’re just looking at notes [on a screen] you can feel like you’re paying attention even if your brain is not actively trying to comprehend what is being taught.”

This technological shift has caused students to be heavily reliant on devices for their learning even though these same devices potentially disrupt the learning process and students’ abilities to critically think. These screens make it too “easy”. Take notes? No, take a picture. Think about the answer? No, just google it.

Apart from how even academic use of technology can hinder the learning process, there is the obvious major issue: distracting games and social media.

Since the iPads’ introduction to Beaver Area classrooms, teachers have been waging a war against the AppStore. And it’s a complex conflict. Too much iPad regulation angers students who view the iPads as “theirs” but not enough allows students to swipe from their calculus problems to playing Fortnite in the blink of an eye.

I suspect that the idea of allowing students to have freedom on the iPad was to promote self regulation, but if this is the case, it’s not working. Many teachers have admitted that they themselves struggle to regulate themselves when grading papers or doing other work when social media or other technological distractions beckon, so how can we expect teenagers to be any more disciplined?

A good plan which is already sort of being utilized is to block certain apps (such as Spotify, Netflix, Fortnite) when students are in school and then “unlock” them when students are at home. But if students continue to show they can’t control themselves (I myself have spent way too much of my high school career playing DreamLeague Soccer) I think games and social media should be banned altogether from school devices.

Not all the blame is just on the technology though. Many teachers suspect there is a deeper root to students not working to their potential. Another Beaver Area teacher said, “I kind of think it goes back to the whole sense of entitlement and the whole thought process of not caring because [young people believe] things will just work out.”

At the end of the day, high school is kind of hard. We’re all still young and trying to figure out how to balance everything in life. But as a senior I am now seeing some of the repercussions of not doing as well in school as I could have if I had done more work. A couple GPA points could be the deciding factor in you getting scholarships. The iPads are here, so we must fight the distraction and focus on our learning. Write out notes, turn off Spotify, think, read, work.

Sure, things will work out—but only if we work to make them work out.