With the Coronavirus causing most everyone to stay at home, social media usage of AHS students is definitely on the rise. To evaluate which apps were being used the most and how this was affecting students, a poll was sent out.

Fifty-eight students responded to the poll. Of those 58, 48 of them believe that their social media usage has increased since the COVID-19 outbreak. I also wanted to know that social media platforms were being used the most. Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok were the top three apps that students were using that majorly increased their social media usage. 

With social media being at our fingertips, even when we try to do school, I wanted to see if school has become less of a priority to AHS students. Of the 58 polled, 27 feel school is less of a priority, 26 say it is not, and 5 say it depends. I also asked them to explain. One student who feels school has become less of a priority said, “ I have other things I can do while being home, I don’t have the motivation to do my school work.” One student who feels the opposite replied, “My grades are still extremely important to me and I try my best to stay on top of them.” 

The majority of people polled believe that their personal influx in screen time and usage of social media has affected them negatively. “I feel like my mental health has gone down”, “I’d rather be on my phone than do school work”, “My grades have dropped significantly because I’m on my phone so much”, “I feel less organized”, “My attention span has gone down tremendously” and “I get more headaches” are just some of the reasons people have said that their social media usage has affected them negatively. On the other side of the spectrum, some students said that it has made it easier to communicate with friends, or that it is simply a form of entertainment, not a distraction. 

The school year is almost at a close. At this point, we are just doing makeup work. With this, the SPUD staff hopes that everyone has finished out the school year strong. Congratulations to the class of 2020!