Are Alabama Kids Spending Too Much Time on Their Phones?

If you’ve been around a middle school or high school lately, you’ve probably noticed something.

Kids don’t look up much anymore.

At restaurants, in the car, sitting on the couch at home — heads down, thumbs moving, screens glowing.

Now a new study suggests it might be happening even more than we thought.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina recently conducted a two-week study where they were allowed to access the phones of middle school and high school students.

What they discovered surprised even them.

On average, students were spending about a third of the school day scrolling on their phones.

That works out to roughly two hours during school hours alone.

And it wasn’t just occasional checking.

Researchers found students were picking up their phones dozens of times throughout the day, often for quick bursts of scrolling on social media or messages.

The bigger concern?

The study showed that frequent phone checking was linked to weaker attention spans and lower impulse control.

In other words, constantly jumping between notifications, messages, and videos may be training the brain to expect constant stimulation.

That makes focusing on classwork a lot harder.

Of course, phones aren’t going anywhere.

They’re how kids communicate, watch videos, listen to music, and connect with friends.

But it does raise an interesting question for parents and teachers here in Alabama:

How much screen time is too much?

And maybe the bigger question, are we all spending a little too much time staring at our phones?

Because if you’re reading this while scrolling your phone at work, you might be part of the study too.

See you somewhere East of Midnight.