By Chris Baca ‘11
THE ROUNDUP
The lives of Brophy students are permeated by the plethora of technology that students have at their disposal.
“One of the things we all need to consider is that we need to process more stimuli now than ever before,” said Head Athletic Trainer and P.E./Health Department Chair Mr. Chris White.
Every student, simply by going to Brophy, is exposed to a larger amount of time on the computer compared to a student going to another school because of the Tablet computer program.
Some stress is to be expected because of things all students do such as homework, sports and extracurricular.
“Stress is an issue in every human’s life – it’s just part of being human,” said Mr. White.
Mr. White also said that stress could cause multiple problems including: disruption in sleep pattern, issues with muscles, disorientation and weight gain/loss.
One reason for technology-induced stress could be the student’s reliance on technology.
According to a recent Associated Press survey of 100 college students, 23 percent found themselves on the Internet for more than six hours a day on any electronic device.
This figure only represents Internet access and not total time spent on the computer.
Add to this the fact that the same survey found that 90 percent of those students were on Facebook at least once a week.
Twenty-five of the 100 people taking this survey also said that being unplugged from technology – meaning no computer, cell phone or TV – would make them “a lot more stressed.”
Compound this with the 32 people who said that this situation would make them feel “a little more stressed” all told that is 57 people who believe they would become more stressed without this technology.
These figures show the steepening of people’s, and especially student’s, reliance on technology for work, relaxing and everything in between.
A differing opinion for increased stress levels due to technology is that technology can be very distracting to students and teachers alike.
Most, if not all, students at Brophy have been off-task in class due to technology.
There are many things that can distract students during the day, whether it is playing a game, doing work, studying for another class or even reading the news.
Any distraction from learning has the possibility of adding stress to the students’ life simply because they are not learning the material they are expected to learn.
“The only stress I see in respect to technology is when students disconnect from what’s going on in the classroom because of their technology and then come to find out, either later in that class, at home, on the test day, doing a paper, that because they were disengaged or unengaged they’re behind,” said Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction Mr. Seamus Walsh.
Both Mr. Walsh and Mr. White state that technology is neither good nor bad in terms of creating stress.
“I don’t think it’s because of the technology, it’s because of poor choices and to a certain degree it’s because of poor classroom management,” Mr. Walsh said.
Mr. White said that technology has the capacity to reduce stress by improving efficiency and becoming more organized.
“Unfortunately when we do not set boundaries (technology) can heighten (stress),” he said.
This sentiment is echoed by Aaron Chavez ’12 who gave his opinion regarding how to relieve stress on students.
“I don’t think there really is a way to lower the stress level simply because of the rigors of life here at Brophy.” Chavez said, “From classes, homework, clubs, sports, friends and family, there really is not a lot Brophy itself can do to reduce stress levels. The responsibility is the students’.”
