Study on More LOLs = Less Sleep
February 25, 2020
As teens, we all know what it’s like to be extremely busy to the point where you don’t even have time to hang out with your friends. School, sports, clubs, and jobs take over our lives and we can’t really find time to be social. But…we all get to scrolling on Twitter before we drift off to sleep and our days of hard work repeat themselves again. Joshua Bobbitt ‘20 agrees, “Sometimes [he] stays up till morning on Twitter and just goes straight to school with no sleep.” We can’t blame ourselves for spending time on social media at night, because it’s really the only way we can chop it up with our friends and actually relax. I don’t know about you, but I love going on Twitter to see the latest funny TikTok or meme.
However, according to a new study from the U.K., there’s a link between high social media usage and poor sleeping patterns. The study found that one in five teens spend five hours or more on social media a day which can lead to lower quality sleep. Emma Sack ‘20 responds to this study, “This seems untrue, [she] truly doesn’t have the time to be on social media for five hours a day.”
You’ve probably heard your mom say that the reason you have a problem or a dilemma is because, “You’re always on that phone!” With this study, most adults would be quick to say that teens should stay off our phones, because it’s hurting us and not helping us. That’s where I call BS, because it’s the expectations from our parents and society to do the most and sacrifice our social lives that hurts teens. Stanley Cannon ‘22 explains, “the pressure from society to strive really affects [his] mental health and social life.”
Teens are simply trying to find some connection with others when we spend our time on social media. It’s not our fault that we have no time to have fun! And plus, we’re teenagers…most of us are used to getting no sleep or not worried about the amount of sleep we get. We’re kids, I think most of us just assume that we will sleep when we are adults. So let us retweet and like in peace; we’ll go to sleep eventually.
