Are smartphones wreaking havoc on teens' lives? Lately, some have argued that smartphones are harming teens’ mental and physical health. While such claims are largely true, there are many productive ways to use your cell phone. Here are a few you should consider:
Online Puzzles: Online puzzles benefit your mind because they can stimulate various cognitive skills. For example, puzzles that involve numbers like Sudoku and KenKen activate areas of the brain associated with logical thinking. Language puzzles like Wordle, Connections, and Wordscapes can stimulate brain regions involved in language processing. Puzzles can train a wide range of brain functions, so they are a good tool if you want to improve your mental skills in a lot of different areas.
Language Learning: Speaking of language, if you want to learn a new one, your phone can help you do so. Language learning apps like Duolingo game-ify the process of learning a new language, helping you stay motivated. While they are not sufficient to achieve fluency in a language, they offer a far more productive use of time than social media. In addition, if used in conjunction with language classes at Berkeley High School, they can be a valuable tool on the road to fluency.
Podcasts: Listening to podcasts in a language you are trying to learn is a great way to build your knowledge. Additionally, podcasts like "My Favorite Murder" and "Stuff You Should Know" are also excellent ways to use your phone. According to The Atlantic, students who listened to a podcast while simultaneously reading its transcript were more focused and understood the content better. This may be because, when listening to something, your brain is forced to process information at the speaker’s pace, keeping you more engaged than when reading words on a page.
Time Management: Your phone can also help you stay focused more generally by helping you organize your time. You can put your commitments in your phone’s calendar app, which can allow you to automatically receive reminders about them. Note-taking apps can allow you to jot down both important facts and ideas for things like school projects that you might otherwise forget. Finally, using your phone to create a to-do list is an excellent way to make sure that you don’t forget any of your tasks.
The negative reputation of smartphones is only part of the story. There are a plethora of productive ways to use them — one just needs to remember how.