The value gained in most technical devices is just unwavering. Smartphones are part of such devices. They are valuable devices to everyone using them, especially students. But the value of smartphones also comes with proper usage. Students should first understand a few questions before adopting the use of smartphones. “Can they give proper academic resources?” Can they assist in research activities? If the answer to such questions is “yes,” students can count on smartphones for productivity. But if not used properly, they won’t have value anymore and may deteriorate a student’s culture.
With large-scale smartphone usage among students comes an impact, especially in their academic paths. The devices can impact student productivity positively or negatively – all these entirely depend on the usage. Everyone knows that the edge of smartphones has facilitated and improved many things, from more accessible communication to inspiring research in all aspects of life – anyone can get to the web quickly and Google. In fact, I often do my Python assignment with the help of a smartphone. That is why in this guide, we explore the positive and negative impacts of smartphones on a student’s life.
The benefits of smartphones on student productivity
When a student uses a smartphone as they study and do homework and assignments, they enjoy the following benefits:
Convenience
As discussed, a student will always reap significant benefits from a smartphone, especially when using it properly. In the smartphone-free error, students depended on desktop computers in their institutions to work on most of their academic stuff. Even with that, everything seemed slow, and students needed more time to submit their assignments. They could only research some of their educational stuff at their convenience. Today, smartphones are handy, and students can efficiently study and get everything they need to learn in the palm of their hands. They can quickly move around with smartphones thanks to all the modern technology incorporated within them. All of these make it much easier and more convenient for students to access academic resources quickly. Moreover, smartphones can also aid in remote learning and, therefore, a blessing to tutors and students.
Quicker access to information and technology
With smartphones, students enjoy just a single tap away from technology. It doesn’t necessarily matter where the students reside, as they don’t need to be in the classroom always. Even outside the class setting, students can easily access live technological information and, more importantly, live and personal academic updates. All these put the use of smartphones among students on a whole different level. The students can enhance their technical and technology skills since smartphones help them stay innovative and current with the ongoing and upcoming technology trends.
Enhanced communication and security
Among the general benefits of smartphone usage is the ability to connect people worldwide. Among the beneficiaries of the people-connection benefits of smartphones are students. With smartphones, students can easily link with teachers, parents, or students to share crucial information. They can also link up or communicate with fellow students to share academic resources and discuss critical academic and examinable areas. All these smartphone potential brings in morphed productivity among students.
Furthermore, smartphones are a central connection between parents, teachers, and students. Therefore, parents can easily understand the whereabouts of their children, thus reducing lots of work by the academic staff in monitoring students. Through communication almost anywhere, smartphones have transformed the communication sector, and all these have zeroed down to be helpful even in student productivity.
Social Entertainment
It isn’t advisable to glue students to a continued repetitive learning schedule. Doing so can cause the students to lose morale or get bored with doing the same study stuff continually and repetitively. But this is where smartphones productively come into life. At a time when students are free and need to relax, they can easily access smartphones and watch educative movies or even listen to good music. All these break the monotony of learning things in a typical academic environment. With smartphones, students can easily play games, which may help their brain growth. Breaking free from the usual academic schedules gives students a perfect time to relax and refresh so that they can interact with academics productively.
Smartphones for student emergencies
Addressing student emergencies in error with no smartphones was quite a challenge for teachers, parents, and students. However, thanks to smartphones, dealing with critical student situations or other situations in this mobile-connected era is easier. The devices help students get immediate assistance when faced with troublesome situations, as they can easily communicate with the desired parties in real time. Tracing students is also more manageable, mainly if natural disasters or large-scale emergencies occur within the school setting. It is a great device to help students avoid danger and save their lives.
More significant support for academic and skill development
Proper usage of smartphones will help students acquire knowledge heavily through academic and skill development. With smartphones, students can easily access information on technology or even learn technological skills in real-time. Smartphones come with most education applications preinstalled and will support a student to learn a skill. Furthermore, the students can easily install other academic applications and retain a skill right in their hands. For instance, they can install programming applications and learn hands-on skills in programming from a comprehensive set of programming languages. All these equip the student with the desired knowledge that generally initiates a tremendous positive impact on the student’s academic life.
Major drawbacks of smartphones on student productivity
While smartphones can be resourceful to students, it is essential to understand that they can also be a source of reduced student productivity. Improper usage of smartphones among students will always lead to the following:
Distraction
Smartphones can easily cause distraction among students, even with their resourceful capabilities. For instance, students can be addicted to the use of such handsets at all times, forgetting about hours of study away from the phone. The handsets might keep the students glued on non-resourceful or academic material, lowering student productivity and performance. Some common causes of smartphone distraction include engaging non-educative social media channels and trending non-educative videos.
Excessive smartphone usage
Some students may entirely depend on using smartphones, hence neglecting their studies. Such is a potential cause of growing laziness among the students. Some causes of excessive smartphone usage among students include spending most of their time chatting with friends and watching unsupportive videos on social media platforms. Such activities only allow some students the time they need to study, thus lowering their academic productivity. Such behavior results from poor performance, lower grades, and the possibility of students destroying their careers.
Impact on health
Continued usage of smartphones with no resting times among students may lead to health problems. It may lead to impaired vision, hearing issues, sleeping disorders, and other serious issues that impact student productivity negatively. Other negative impacts of smartphones on students include exposure to violence and malpractices, among others.
Conclusion
Smartphones have a more significant impact on student life, whether used appropriately or not. However, advising students to use their smartphones for a productive future is essential. All these will impact their academic lives and improve their performance and productivity in general. Misusing the devices will likely bring about intellectual deterioration and, thus, reduced productivity.