Can your screen time affect your grade? One study suggests it can. From the article:

Our survey consisted of 875 undergraduate post-secondary students (1st-year students aged 17-19) from a number of US schools. To keep the survey simple, respondents were asked what their daily phone screen time was the last 7 days and their current grade. From the results, there were many findings, especially once we dug a little deeper into the data….

We found that 83% of respondents used their phone for at least 3 hours, while only 17% used it for less than 3 hours. This shows that the strong majority use their phones quite a lot throughout the week. Furthermore, the most uncommon screen time was 0-1 hours which only 1% of respondents selected….

The lowest overall grade for those who have 0-1 hours of screen time is a B- compared to a D- for those who have 8+ hours of screen time.

Although it doesn’t necessarily mean that more phone time will give you a lower grade, it means that more phone time results in a higher likelihood to get a lower grade than a B-….

The longer you spend on your phone, the higher the likelihood that you’ll get a lower grade (in the C’s or D’s). According to Away for The Day, a study by Delaney Ruston on the effects of screen time, college students participated in various cognitive tests with phones present and not present and it was found that “the presence of phones negatively impacted attention and task performance….”

So, the answer to “does phone screen time affect grades?” is yes, it’s one factor that can negatively affect grades but it isn’t the only one, nor is it a direct causation, but rather a correlation.

Instead, the conclusion is that phone time significantly increases the possibility of getting a lower grade due to the increased variability that more phone time brings.

For other posts on technology and learning, see here and here.