Teenagers around the world are slowly losing their ability to focus in school. Many teens today would claim they’re better than adults at multitasking because they do it more often; however, constant multitasking damages your ability to focus. The reason this happens is because people cannot focus on two things at once; instead, our brains switch between things quickly, giving the illusion of multitasking. This is related to school and homework because brains from a young age are programmed by devices to multitask. What this means is when kids multitask, their brain gets worse at focusing on a single thing.

One study shows that only 2% of people are truly capable of multitasking effectively. Another study done on teenagers in college shows that teenagers in technology rich environments averaged lower GPAs than students who weren’t. Kids between the ages of 8-12 average over 4.5 hours daily on screens whereas teens in the U.S. average over 6.5.   Another danger to social media and school is increased stress levels. social media causes anxiety, as proven several times in the past. Students may not be able to fully focus in class due to the distraction and anxiety caused by social media. One of the things students can do to focus better in class is turn off their notifications. One study done on teenagers shows that notifications cause an increase in heart rate. Psychiatrist Dr. Sonal explains how social media can damage relationships and turning of notifications can help people get better sleep. The moral of the story is that social media is causing increased stress and decreased efficiency in teens during school. Several studies have proved how this is true and the best way to solve this problem is by silencing notifications.