It’s an obvious fact that today’s scholars are far more dependent on technology than they were ten years ago. We use the Internet as the immediate answer to anything we struggle with instead of thinking through it ourselves, and along with that issue comes a greater number of students with the mindset that everything you need to know is online. “So what’s the point of taking the time to complete assignments using your brain?” In addition to that, using technology as our main tool for school can also result in plagiarism as as well as it becoming a distraction. All of these reasons clearly show that limiting Internet access to students is a smart option.

Becoming too dependent on something is never a good situation. As growing young adults, high school is when we develop our habits, both good and bad. And when you create a habit for yourself to immediately turn to technology as your answer to everything, you are creating a habit of becoming a more dependent person. Having independence and working out problems on your own develops critical thinking skills as well as other essential components that make your brain function. Without using your mentality for anything, how can you exercise your brain?

Along with this comes a major issue for both students and teachers alike— plagiarism. With today’s Internet providing such a wide array of information for practically every question a person could ever ask, it’s incredibly easy to steal another’s work and call it your own for a question on a homework assignment or even an essay. And while the teachers at AHS do their best to prevent plagiarism by stressing the consequences and negative effects and utilizing turnitin.com, its prevalence is only increasing.

However, on Dec. 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made the decision to repeal net neutrality, angering millions of avid Internet users across the nation. The reason for the repeal was so that companies such as Sprint and Verizon can make more money off of consumers, knowing that we would be willing to pay the higher bills, especially since our younger generations have had the Internet for practically their entire lives. While the law may take some time before it is put into action, it can allow people to realize how reliant they are on technology and start to establish habits of using it less.

Graphic courtesy of FREEPIK.COM