Imagine juggling 20 tabs for seven classes and frantically copying notes from a digital textbook all while having to remember to sign out on a Chromebook to be able to use the bathroom. For Gunn students, this isn’t a hypothetical scenario: It’s their everyday reality. With schools nationwide embracing laptops, tablets and online tools as the future of education, students often spend more time navigating technology than absorbing lessons. However, this digitalization of students’ academic lives is actually more harmful than beneficial. It can cause negative effects on both mental and physical health while also contributing to financial imbalances and barriers, discarding the social aspects of learning.
It’s easy to make the assumption that because technology has many resources, it is okay to use it excessively. However, just the data alone refutes this claim. According to the Center of Disease Control, teens between the ages of 12 and 17 had an average screen time of four hours or more from July 2021 to December 2023. That’s 28 hours a week, practically a part-time job. This was only taking into account non-school related activities, meaning the average would’ve been significantly longer. Such extremities always have an effect on people, and in this case, it’s negative. The CDC also adds that one in four of the surveyed teens that had this amount of screen time experienced signs of existing depression and anxiety. So what does this mean for students? With schools implementing more and more digital tools in their classrooms such as district-issued devices, students are further encouraged to spend more time in front of screens, which can then amplify mental health issues.
Beyond just mental health, excessive screen exposure disrupts critical circadian sleep rhythms for teens. The National Institute of Health reports that the blue light emitted by screens at any point during the day interferes with melatonin production, resulting in delayed bedtimes, reduced sleep quality and daytime fatigue. This means that even though students may be using devices in class during the day, their sleep can still be butchered at night. The physical consequences are also serious: According to an article from Very Well Health by Kelly Burch, eye strain, neck pain, headaches and increased risk of obesity are widespread consequences of excessive device usage.
So are there any benefits of using digital tools to learn? It would be expected that it’s easier to absorb information digitally as there are so many resources available online. However, it is actually the opposite. Learning through screens may hinder one’s ability to retain information. A decade-long study at Stanford found that heavy media multitaskers scored significantly lower on memory tasks. The students from the study who were distracted during lectures — whether by texting or web browsing — showed weaker long-term retention, despite appearing to follow the material in the short term. Another study conducted by the NIH on the neuroscience behind writing showed that taking handwritten notes rather than taking them digitally activates essential parts of the brain that control long term memory retention. Because paper-based learning has been proved to be much more effective, it should be favored in classrooms over digital tools.
Furthermore, not every student has access to digital tools. While digital tools promise equality, they often exacerbate existing disparities. Districts can issue every student a device, but they can’t guarantee working Wi-Fi or power for everyone at home. According to the California Education Source Organization, around 20% of students in the state did not have access to reliable internet in 2020. The National Center for Education Statistics presented that 12% of 3-18 year old students in the U.S. also do not
have access to the internet at home. This shows that remote learning or screen-based tasks are disproportionately challenging for some students. Without proper access to hardware or connectivity, these students fall behind not due to lack of effort but digital inequity, creating deeper educational divides.
But possibly the most important part of learning besides assignments and grades is social connection and collaboration. Education is more than content delivery: It’s human. Face-to-face interaction sparks collaboration, empathy and social learning. Yet, when students are tethered to screens, social cues, peer collaboration and spontaneous discussion fade away. The result is that classrooms turn silent, not from focus, but from isolation. An article from Effective School Suggestions reported that between the years of 2003 and 2022, face-to-face socializing between teens fell by more than 45%. This can be attributed to the increasingly fast switch to digital-based learning during and after the pandemic. If schools allow devices to remain essential in classrooms, teens will lose crucial aspects of social growth and awareness.
It’s clear that the digital shift brings real harms: health hazards, cognitive decline, equity gaps and social disconnection. That’s why schools need thoughtful reform, not rejection of technology. Examples of this could be reintroducing paper-based learning such as handwritten notes and printed assignments. Technology in class could also be limited. For example, restricting screen-based instruction to just 30 minutes daily could preserve attention and reduce fatigue. Unnecessary technology use could also be eliminated from students’ school life such as digitalizing assignments that could be written on paper instead. All in all, these ideas can help educators reclaim learning, not from technology, but from our dependence on it.
