Students at Pleasant Valley are getting distracted from their academics and are well aware of it possibly having an affect on their post-secondary performance.
Though high school students face pressure from both colleges and several high-stress standardized tests, the problem of distractions is ever-present. Students describe not only phones and electronics, but also jobs and athletics as potential distractors from good grades.
Learning to balance school with sports and other aspects of a student’s life is just one of the skills developed in high school. Without learning to balance distractions among work, students are more susceptible to facing challenges when trying to balance life away from home on their own.
While aspects of student life like technology can be extremely helpful for students to get their work done, many students feel technology serves as one of the largest distractions in their life.
“My biggest distraction is my phone,” said senior Margaret Huang. “I try to eliminate this as a distraction by putting my phone on ‘do not disturb’.”
Other students identified technology as one of their biggest distractions as well. Senior Kishore Vijaykumar said “The biggest distraction in my life right now would be my computer. One second I’m using it to work and the next I’m watching Youtube because it’s so easy to switch tasks on the computer.”
Despite the consistent pull of technology in students’ lives, they do not seem concerned about their abilities to manage their time later in life.
“I think college will be easier to balance because my schedule will be more consistent and I will have the freedom to use my time how I want,” said Vijaykumar. Huang agreed: “College will probably be equally as hard to balance with distractions, but not more difficult because my phone habits will stay consistent.”
In addition to technology, students described sleeping, spending time with friends, and attempting to keep up hobbies as distractions within their lives. “Instead of homework I sleep or eat or talk to my friends,” said Huang.
While there is no shortage of distractions for the typical high school student today, students have learned ways to manage their distractions in order to be able to prioritize schoolwork and ensure that they can be organized later in life in college as well.
