How it affects students mental health

MESA COUNTY, Colo. (KKCO) – On average, kids spend about nine hours on their phones during the day and five of those hours on social media.

Since the early 1990s, the world has slowly been consumed by technology. Smartphones allow almost anything to be available with the tap of a button.

Over the last decade, there has been an increase in negative effects smartphones have on youth mental health, even in Mesa County.

“I feel like a lot of times with social media, I’m not as present as I should be,” said Maddox Rewold, a Palisade High School student. “I’m constantly looking at other peoples’ standards and posts all the time, and I’m really not living my own life.”

“I constantly relied on my phone. I was always on it 24/7,” said Kolhter Howard, a Palisade High School student. “I wasn’t talking to my family. I was just sitting there on my phone and not really being productive with my time.”

These effects are also seen at the district and state level.

“Some of what’s going on are distractions that are harmful, bullying, other threats. This is all harmful to the learning environment,” said Phil Weiser, Colorado Attorney General.

“The research is really pointing to, adolescents in general, but especially that kind of elementary through middle school phase students just not being able to regulate as well,” said Dr. Brian Hill, District 51 Superintendent. “It impacts their sleep, it impacts their attention in class— the amount of time they actually hang out with friends and socialize.”

Licensed Counselor at the Counseling & Education Center Hali Nurnberg said this also impacts parents.

“Parents feel really isolated right now. They’re also, because of social media, holding themselves to higher standards of perfectionism and how they’re parenting,” she said. “They’re juggling work, raising kids, life balance, figuring out how to pay bills, and putting groceries on the table, and all of the things they’re doing. And the phone becomes a dissociative distraction technique that interferes with their ability to actually have time.”

District 51, with the help of the Western Colorado Community Foundation and the Attorney General’s office, has implemented a new smartphone policy to combat this growing problem.

“Our campaign slogan is ‘More Social, Less Media’. So we’re trying to find a way to reduce that amount of social media, use technology use, and increase the social interactions,” said Hill. “All middle school and high school classrooms have some sort of storage device, it could be a box to hold the phones, we have four schools that are using Yonder pouches that actually lock the phones in the pouch.”

These strategies went into effect in Fall 2024, and have already been met with praise from students.

“People now are starting to use their phones a lot less,” said Howard. “They’re trying to step back from them and talk to people more often without using social media, and I think it’s been really helpful for everyone.”

There are also some who miss the ability to use their phones as tools, rather than entertainment.

“It’s definitely a resource inside the classroom when there’s not enough calculators to go around, you have your phone when you need research tools that aren’t accessible to Chromebooks, your phones are great tools for that,” said Rewold.

The limited use in schools has also carried over to their lives outside of school.

“A lot of times I just don’t see my phone, it sounds crazy, but I use it now as a form of communication as opposed to a form of entertainment,” said Rewold.

District 51 does not want the battle to stop here.

“We want to make sure that we’re also educating kids along the way as well. Because when they are adults, they’re on their own, are they gonna be able to be responsible with those devices?,” said Hill.

“They’re working on a playbook here. I want to make sure we get out that word and other school districts can follow suit,” said Wesier.

“The more we can build strong bonds in our community, the healthier we would be as individuals, as families, and as a society,” said Nurnberg.

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