According to recent research, more than 95% of students own a mobile phone, so it’s no longer news that most students own a mobile phone.
However, the question is – are there positive and negative effects of mobile phones on students?
What do you think? Let’s find out if there are any, and if there actually are, what are they?
What Are The Positive And Negative Effects Of Mobile Phones On Students
Just like most things in life, mobile phones have both negative and positive impacts on the life of users which include students.
Let’s take a look at them
Positive Effects Of Mobile Phones On Students
With the increased modern development, the importance of having a phone even as a student can’t be overemphasized. Permit me to say that it’s as important as having a book and pen.
Take a look at the positive influence mobile phones have on students
1. Hassle-Free Life
You can’t deny the fact that mobile phones have brought ease in the lives of students.
These days, students don’t need to depend on desktop computers in the library to get their classroom research done or even scan the entire library in search of books to gather information from.
With mobile phones, students can easily have access to thousands of academic sources from the comfort of their homes.
Furthermore, they don’t need to travel miles to hear from their loved ones, reach their teachers, search for part-time jobs, order lunch or book cabs as all of that can be done with just a click.
2. Easy Access To Info And Tech
Teachers can conveniently tell you that student engagement is a lot better when technology-driven tools are used to aid learning.
As they go about their usual lives even after classroom activities, the mobile phone helps them to have access to live information and updates about things happening across the world.
3. Enhanced Security And Emergency Communication
Most parents sync their accounts to their children’s phones so as to know their exact location at every point in time.
This, in no small measure, assures their safety and reduces the stress of having to call the school administrative staff before you can reach your child.
Additionally, in times of emergency, mobile phones are quite helpful as you can use them to instantly call 911.
The location of a missing student can also be traced through GPS and mobile phone signals, and in case of probable risk, messages can be spread across to all students so as to avoid danger and save their life too.
4. Social Entertainment
We all know what all work and no play does to the life of anybody talk more of a student.
With the emergence of mobile phones, students can ease off stress after a long stressful day filled with school work.
They can watch the latest movies, and TV shows, play interactive games, and music, and do every other fun thing from the comfort of their home.
Read Also:
5. Refreshes Memory
It’s almost impossible to get hold of all the teacher has said during lessons, and that’s where mobile phones come in handy.
Students can easily record the voice of the teacher, take pictures of images whether figures or diagrams shown by their teachers, and even take quick notes in case their notebook is far from their reach.
This way, they can always revisit the recordings, pictures, and notes to refresh their memory.
6. Aids In Seamless Communication
You can’t afford to talk about the positive effect of mobile phones on students without mentioning how it has affected their communication.
They can reach out to just anybody ranging from loved ones, teachers, and group/project mates through voice calls, video calls, and messaging at any time to either pass information or hear from them.
Even for group projects, group members can attend virtually or watch later, and still grab all that was said if they were unavoidably absent.
7. Adaptation To A Modern World
No doubt, modern technologies including mobile phones have transformed almost every aspect of our society, and you hardly see an organization that is not embracing these developments.
Students don’t have to wait till they are out of school before they can do the same. That being said, the use of mobile phones by students enables them to get familiar with modern technology which would greatly help them in their careers going forward.
8. Time Management
Another positive impact of mobile phones in the life of students is that it helps them to be time-conscious which will, in turn, improve their time management skills.
Mobile phones have clocks, alarm features, and calendars where they can set reminders about important dates such as class tests, group discussions, assignment deadlines, and so on.
9. Helps You Organise Yourself
Mobile phones help students in organizing their day-to-day activities.
You may be wondering how – it has apps like calendars, alarms, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, notes, and so on that can help them note important events beforehand.
Additionally, they can easily store documents thereby eliminating the need to keep searching for documents and send memos and emails.
10. Navigation
It’s difficult to get lost because mobile phones with the help of Google maps assist students, especially newbies in finding their way around the school, and even outside the school environment.
Irrespective of where you are looking for whether an apartment, restaurants, salons, grocery stores, gas stations, malls, hospitals you can easily find it, and there is no excuse for being late to lectures as a result of missing your way to school or inability to identify the location of your lecture hall.
Negative Effects Of Mobile Phones On Students
With all the benefits that come with using a mobile phone as a student, one may wonder if there are negative effects as well.
Yes, mobile phones do have negative impact on the lives of students, and I have listed some of them below:
1. A Major Source Of Distraction
Mobile phones distract students greatly. You either find them browsing through their phones when classes are on-going, or spend hours on their phones moving from one social site to the other thereby having no time for studies.
Again, they spend hours watching movies using their mobile phones or listening to music, taking pictures for the gram, and lots more.
2. Exposure To Immoral Contents
With the use of mobile phones, students are easily exposed to numerous immoral activies happening online, and they could even go as far as engaging in them.
They include sharing nude pictures, sexting, or accessing porn sites with their phones.
3. Health Risk
A lot of research works have been previously published about the radiation emitted from the device which is capable of causing chronic health diseases such as cancer and brain tumor.
Aside from this, excessive use of mobile phone can lead to impaired vision, hearing issues, and most importantly, sleep deprivation.
This can generally affect the student’s academic performance.
4. Cyber bullying
Research has shown that students with mobile phones are at great risk of being cyberbullied (name calling, threats, body shaming).
Unfortunately, this ugly act can be perpetuated by styrangers online or by their fellow students.
No doubt, this has great psychological effect on students, and could lead to depression in extreme cases which transcends to suicide, low self-esteem, and other ugly effects.
5. Examination Malpractice
Students can easily use their mobile phones to carry out examination malpractice which could lead to the expulsion of the student as most schools frown at this act.
At the end of the day, the child’s academic life is greatly affected.
6. Attracts Expenses
Most students don’t earn, and even if they do, they don’t earn as much.
On the other hand, the price of mobile phones keep increasing by the day, and worst still, it doesn’t stop at buying the mobile phone but they will also have to pay for data subscriptions daily, weekly, or monthly as the case maybe.
How then do they afford these things? Most of them will stop at nothing to buy them thereby involving themselves in different crimes.
7. Reduced Social Skills
Since the inception of mobile phones, most people including students have made their mobile phones to be their best friends.
They barely socialize, go out to meet with people, instead they would rather have themselves stay glued to their phones screens. This will greatly affect their social skills as interacting with people live becomes a difficult task.
8. Security Problems
Mobile phones can be hacked from time to time, and when this is done, private information of such student like documents, identity, pictures, or contacts could be exposed, or stolen.
9. Wrong Educational Materials
It’s impossible to checkmate the information being uploaded online, so there are thousands of wrong educational materials online.
Students are exposed to such information, and they could pick, and run with it.
10. Accident/Death
Most times, students receive calls or text, and there is this tendency to respond to them even while driving, so they tend to do both at the same time.
This could pose a great risk to their lives and the lives of other road users.
Again, sometimes, they can get so engrossed with their phone while walking that they don’t notice upcoming vehicle.
This could lead to accident or death.
Conclusion
No doubt, mobile phones have huge influence on the lives of students.
It has also affected their lives positively by providing them easy access to technology, and information, making learning interesting, helping them keep track of presentations, complete assignments, exam schedules, improving their skills and talents like learning any software of their choice, dancing, singing, cooking, art and craft, and so on.
However, the same mobile phase has also impacted their lives negatively as listed in the article.
Now, do you think the positive effect of mobile phone on students outweigh the negative impact?
Are there other effects mobile phones have on students whether positively or negatively that were not mentioned in the article?
Feel free to share them with us in the comment section.
