In 2025, a study concluded that about 76.7% of teenagers show exorbitant levels of nomophobia. Nomophobia is defined as the extreme fear or anxiety of being without a mobile device or service. As technology advances, phone addiction is slowly becoming a more prevalent issue and its symptoms are beginning to affect the mental wellbeing of society in its entirety. It’s time to learn to put down our phones and allow ourselves to fully decompress.

With the return of school, phone addiction has become far more evident. Walk into any class room and you are bound to see multiple students sneakily checking their notifications or doomscrolling TikTok. The phone law isn’t powerful or threatening enough to get students off their phones, so what is?

Every addiction comes with serious consequences and symptoms. Phones are no different. Anxiety, sleep deprivation, insecurity, disorientation, and poor grades are only a few of the symptoms that can attach themselves to phone addiction. These affect the daily life of teenagers in astronomical ways and yet, it is continuously down played and overlooked.

For most students, their first impulse in the morning is to check their phone and maybe scroll their feeds for a while before anything else. Research shows that the immediate use of phones after waking up can decrease your mental abilities and productivity. Beginning your day by staring into a screen may release a little dopamine, but it decreases your abilities to do well in your classes. Is social media and phone use truly worth all of the downsides that follow? I think not.

If we as a society can learn to put down our phones and become less codependent, the mental morale of the community is sure to improve. Choosing healthier alternatives and hobbies is most definitely the move to make.