The positive and negative impact of smartphones in the educational world
Smartphones or smartphones are now commonplace in everyday life. Many children of primary school or kindergarten age already have their smartphones.
As reported by maxmanroe.com, a smartphone is a mobile phone equipped with various advanced and high-performance functions like a computer.
Smartphones can be described as mini-computers in the form of mobile phones. People can access various communication, education, and social applications just by using smartphones without opening a computer.
Inevitably, students’ use of smartphones is very urgently needed sometimes.
It is not uncommon for them to have to do homework at school or inevitably go online with their smartphones because the information they are looking for is not in their textbooks.
However, there are quite a few negative effects of using smartphones for students of this knowledge. This makes the pros and cons between the pros and cons of using smartphones in education.
The positive impact of smartphones
1. Facilitate communication
It is undeniable that today’s communication is greatly facilitated by the presence of smartphones.
This is also true in the world of education, where communication between teachers – students – parents can be done more easily and en masse through groups available on communication applications such as WhatsApp, Line, or Telegram.
This can reduce the risk of losing information, as was often the case before smartphones, chain messages didn’t arrive for various reasons, e.g. B. missing credit, or someone who didn’t get the message because they missed it.
Sharing information or conducting video conferences to complete tasks can also be done anywhere and anytime with the help of a smartphone, which can be very helpful in the learning process.
For example, in group assignments, if there are children who cannot come, he can still follow the group assignment process through the existing communication group.
2. Entertainment Media
Smartphones have many entertainment features and this can be a medium to help students or teachers take a break from their boredom.
Lots of entertainment applications for them to learn and play with.
For example, games that can improve student skills that can be practiced in their lives or games that improve memory or numeracy skills.
3. Expand knowledge
One of the positive effects of smartphones is that they can help students to get information on different subjects very easily.
Smartphones are equipped with various applications, including educational ones. In addition, students can access various information using search engines such as Google and verify the accuracy of the information collected.
It helps them in completing their tasks and can increase their knowledge and help them improve their academic performance.
4. Increase the comfort of learning
Many students or teachers feel more comfortable using smartphones while studying rather than spending a lot of time searching the library for sources of information they need.
Smartphones help them save a lot of time in their room with just one click and can use their time to study or communicate with their friends, family, or teachers at the same time.
5. Availability of more sophisticated technology
Smartphones offer a wide range of useful applications that can support the learning process and collect the necessary information. In addition, lessons can be held via smartphones using smartphones.
In addition, students and teachers can use smartphones to learn new skills and hobbies. For example learning a new language, drawing techniques, cooking, or improving public speaking skills by learning through their smartphones.
6. Sharpen students’ memory
Smartphones can be a medium to sharpen students’ memory in the learning process. With a smartphone, they can fully record, photograph, and record all the lessons taught and study at home.
This can facilitate the learning process for students before exams or when completing assignments by listening to or memorizing material they have stored on their smartphones.
7. Improve ability to manage time
The positive impact of smartphone use increases the ability to manage their time. Many applications can help them organize their study time better.
Multiple applications like Notes, Stopwatch, Calendar, Alarm Clock, Recorder, Google Drive, Office, and many more can help you to take notes, and receive and send documents.
Organize their study time so that they can be more punctual in their studies and set the scale of priorities in completing their tasks.
With the help of smartphones, students can become the best students at learning and improve various aspects of their lives through proper time management.
Negative effects of the smartphone
1. Don’t focus while studying
Smartphones can distract students during the teaching and learning process. Sometimes they get distracted by reading text messages, playing games, or just checking social media.
It’s not uncommon for students to miss a few classes because they’re too busy with their smartphones.
2. Can cause addiction
Smartphones can be addictive for students and are inseparable from their smartphones. From waking up to falling asleep again.
Smartphones became the first thing they looked for and this gave rise to a new trend called nomophobia, the fear that arises because someone has to part with their smartphone, as reported by psychologicaltoday.com.
These fears arise because of the addictive nature felt by the students. Anxiety arises when they lose their smartphone, the battery runs out or no signal interferes with their learning process.
According to a study, 58% of men and 47% of women suffer from nomophobia and 9% of them feel depressed when their smartphone turns off.
3. Lack of social interaction in real life
With the advent of a lot of social media, students can use their smartphones to update what’s happening in their lives.
As a result, social interaction in their lives decreases. They are more preoccupied with interacting through social media, which often results in disrupted relationships with friends, family, and academic performance as they focus more on playing games on their smartphones.
4. Decreased school performance
Improper use of smartphones can lead to declining academic performance. One of the reasons is that they cannot remember or grasp the information given during the teaching and learning process because they are distracted by their smartphones.
5. Make less empathy with the environment
People who are addicted to smartphones tend to be more indifferent and less empathetic to what is happening around them because they are already engrossed in their smartphones.
For example, when meeting up with family or friends, quite a few are even cool to look down and play on smartphones instead of sharing news and stories with the people around them.
6. Increase levels of anxiety and depression
Social media has become a sharing medium and people usually share their stories there, ranging from holiday snaps to culinary delights and other good news.
This can increase anxiety and depression in others who don’t have the opportunity to experience the happiness their friends are sharing on social media.
In a study entitled Social Media Use and Adolescent Mental Health: Findings From the UK Millennium Cohort Study, cited by sciencedirect.com, it is said that 50% of women are at higher risk than men when using social media Media to fall ill with depression which is 35%.
Why is the rate of depressive symptoms higher in girls than boys? At puberty, girls tend to be more sensitive and pay more attention to their external appearance.
They often compare the physical appearance of others they see on social media to themselves, which can affect their stress levels.
Online harassment and cyberbullying on social media can also increase students’ anxiety, leaving them stressed and depressed.
7. Risk of smartphone misuse
It’s so easy to access the internet from a smartphone when it’s being misused to access websites students aren’t supposed to access.
For example, it is used to access pornography and there are quite a few cases of students committing lewd acts due to pornography addiction which can be easily accessed through their smartphones.
8. Impairment of health
Excessive use of smartphones can affect users’ health. For example, the impairment of eye health or the lack of sleep due to the use of smartphones late into the night.
This affects students’ level of concentration while studying and can affect their academic performance.
9. Reduce brain acquisition and memory
Smartphones can cause brain comprehension and memory to decline in students. This is because they typically rely on smartphones to do things like record conversations or use search engines for anything they don’t know.
The brain is not trained to think when they constantly rely on smartphones in their learning process, and it is not uncommon for their comprehension to fail.
10. Fraud
The ease of use of a smartphone can open up the possibility for students to cheat during exams, either by accessing the internet or sharing answers with friends via communication media.
Cheating can happen because students are lazy. After all, they are too busy playing with their smartphones and making them lazy.
By the above explanation, there are many positive and negative implications of smartphone use in education.
As a smartphone user, it is better to be smarter, especially for college students, so that the negative effects of using a smartphone can be minimized.
As a parent, it is good to supervise and guide children when using smartphones. So, hopefully useful!
