By Diana Nguyen and Manuel Aguina,

Kids today have phones, laptops, and other electronic devices that have games and are ways to communicate with others. The reason many kids have low grades and act rudely, and why people may say this generation is messed up, could be these electronic devices. Some of the people kids communicate with online could be a bad influence because these people are sharing inappropriate things, trying to make others think they are cool.

Phones distract people nowadays because people get lost in them, like its the phone, and not their surroundings, that is their one and only focus.  Twelfth grade Patterson student, Adarely Perez, says, “Phones are making us less intelligent because they are too much of a distraction.”

Also, eleventh grader Jordan Dennis says, “Phones are making us lazy in the way that you can connect with people faster and it makes life for a teenager easier.”

Most people nowadays focus on their social media status. Social media did not used to be so common on mobile devices, so when it first came to mobile devices, people were hooked on it like a drug. On devices now, it is common to see people sending tweets, posting statuses, or sending pictures. It has grown to a point that in schools, students just look at their tiny screens and forget everything else.

Although phones may sound like they are making us dumb, they can also make us smarter. Our mobile device is a highly intelligent device. “IPhone or Samsung Galaxy in your pocket is actually an incredibly sophisticated networking computer”, explains Andrew Keen, author from up front magazine. Some people don’t really understand the power that they have in their pockets the power to use a super calculator, write stories, or even edit movies, but they rarely use those powers. Apps on mobile devices help people edit movies, read books, get news , and also can help learn new things about a specific subject from science to math. Mr Mello says “No. Phones make us dumb only in the way we use them, but they are really good learning tools.”

The point is that phones can be seen as bad and good. Many people can argue that phones are making us dumber but they only see the social media  side of phones. People who see the social media side to phones only think of selfies, videos, and chatting. Other people can see the technological side of the phones, they see that phones are a learning tool. The people who do see the tech side of phones see the immense power like problem solving to reading books.