As students in the 21st century, Google is one of the most valuable resources we have access to. It helps with finding images, research, quotes, and much more. However most students do not use it in this way. Instead, students are using it to play games, go shopping, and even to look for AI to cheat on assignments.
To look deeper into this we sent out a form for students to fill out to see what exactly they are looking at. Once we got the results back, it was astounding. Over 50% of students reported using google for things other than school. This was very interesting so we spoke with WHS student, Kaylin Fransone, to see why this might be, “I think it is caused by students losing motivation throughout the school day” Fransone says, “and it is very easy to get distracted when class gets boring.”
Now that we know why they aren’t doing class related activities, let’s look at what they are doing instead. In the pie chart included below we can see this breakdown in more detail. Most students tend to use Google for shopping or other random activities. However, one main statistic that attracts attention is that nearly 15.6% of students are using Google to play games during class. This brings great concern within the high school community for many reasons. We talked to Mattie Perryman to see what she thinks about this, “I don’t think it will cause a huge downfall of the education but I worry most that the students are not learning the way they should be.”
Although the blame can be very easily put onto the students for not paying attention, it could just as easily be put on the teachers for not making their class interesting to students. The future is very fast approaching and we need to keep up with it. If students do not see value in the content they are learning then they will ignore it and instead focus on their interests which can be shown through what they Google.