Chromebooks are practically the central part of school now. Most education is now online, even if you’re inside of a physical classroom, there is still the infamous Google Classroom. What side effects does being online all of the time really have? Does being online for education really help and how do the students feel about always having to be online?
There is a mix of people who like having school online, some who prefer pencil and paper. The majority of the people who prefer online think that it is way easier because you can’t physically lose anything. However, does anyone ever think about what online school may do to you neurologically? If online learning is completely online, for example, Zoom classes, it is proved that mental health risks and anxiety are significantly increased. This can also include the growth of social anxiety, due to an excess amount of exposure only to people over a screen. What if the students not only don’t like this decision, but it could also be affecting them as a whole? Things that are caused by being online too much include depression, OCD, enhanced social anxiety, and anxiety in general.
As the benefits may outrule the downsides in quantity by a long run, the matter of a student’s health is still a very big concern. Assignments online may be a whole lot easier to find things rather than trying to rummage through your backpack just to find an old wrinkled paper that was due last week. However, with that in mind, what can the infamous “blue light” that the screen emits do to the human brain? Change in the amount of time spent on screens inside of school walls may not even make a difference. This is because almost everyone has a cell phone with them all of the time. The majority of the time people constantly use the cellphone as a help with boredom or just to pass the time.
When you start to feel that you’ve exceeded an appropriate amount of screen time, keep this in mind. Having a phone or Chromebook constantly in your grasp may not be as healthy as it may seem. There are ups and downs to a lot of time being spent on electronics, but what matters more than your own mental health?
