Shut Down Your Screen Benefits

Is it really possible to ask students to put down their phones, computers, and tablets for a whole week? Today, if a school was to participate in “Shut Down Your Screen Week” I do not think students, or even teachers, would be able to function without any use of screens. Technology is a crucial aspect of learning and is found in every school in the United States. Information and communication with others is always seconds away with the use of the internet and our phones. This concept was a dream to our ancestors whose only means of this type of knowledge was books and writing letters. Technology benefits teachers and students every day. Yet there are some people who think we are becoming too dependable on it, that our relationships are less intimate, or it has made us just lazy.

This compares with the five hours people were consuming in 1960 (Richtel 2010). This seems like a shocking amount of time spent in front of a screen. However, when common social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are taken into consideration it is not so surprising after all. Then, we can also include the popular, yet very addicting Netflix. The world’s leading Internet television network has over 69 million members in over 60 countries enjoying more than 100 million hours of TV show and movies per day (Netflix 2015). With so many families and college students that own laptops and gaming systems, it is no wonder there is a shockingly high amount of Television consumed every