It’s late Monday night as Emma Heib situates herself on the couch to study. As a junior Electronic Media and Broadcasting major, the end of the semester means suffocating pressure. A tower of exams, papers and projects looms in the back of her mind. She has an exam on Friday she needs to prepare for; she knows time is precious. From her laptop, her Canvas dashboard illuminates her face. Her notes sprawl out next to her beside her water bottle and her phone; she’s ready to dive in.
Half an hour later, she looks up from the TikTok video playing on her phone at her laptop still idling on the Canvas dashboard. “I got bored while studying. I didn’t want to do it,” she admits. “I feel so annoyed with myself because I can’t stay consistent… or on track.”
Since the early 2000’s as smartphones became increasingly popular, concerns were raised nationally about their effect on how young people connect and learn. Generations now grow up and go to school with a little screen containing the perfect algorithm to keep them hooked. Across the country, students, teachers and parents are worried about how endless scrolling and mindless tapping are impacting attention spans.
In 2024, ‘brain rot’ was named The Oxford Word of the Year. It is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging”.
Data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) showed “77 percent of public schools prohibit students from using cell phones during any class”. NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr points out the impact phones have had on students in public schools across the country.
“53% of school leaders reporting negative impacts of cell phone use on academic performance, and even more citing negative impacts on students’ mental health and attention spans,” she said, “schools are facing a critical issue. Schools are responding with practical solutions, like banning or restricting phone use.”
The ban on cell phones is lifted in college, which allots responsibility and accountability on the student alone.
“The reason that we don’t have those cell phone bans at college is because most college students are adults… and we assume that adults are able to regulate their cell phone usage and use phones in a responsible way,” NKU psychology professor Kathleen Fuegen said.
To understand how real the ‘rot’ is for students at Northern Kentucky University, the Northerner did a campus-wide survey. 80 students shared insights on their phone usage.
Only 7.5% said they never pick up their phone during a 50-minute class. About 76% said they are on their phone for more than 4 hours a day, with 28% being on it for 6 or more hours. According to the survey, the more time a student spends on their phone each day, the harder it becomes for them to ignore it when they are actually trying to focus on school.
Boredom, stress and habit were the three top reasons why students reach for their phones.
“It temporarily releases stress like my brain is on vacation,” Heid added, “but then, like, as I’m on it in the back of my mind, I’m thinking about everything I have to do, and I feel like a weight on my chest. So it’s actually just stressing me out more.”
Fuegen points out how the real distraction can simply be the presence of a phone, not just what’s on the screen.
“I think it’s possible to still focus when your phone is next to you. I think, though, that simply seeing it on the table in front of you creates the temptation to check it, especially if you’re feeling bored or anxious already,” she said.
Half of the students surveyed spend most of their time on TikTok. Dr. Fuegen thinks weak attention spans could be a byproduct of short-form video content structures.
“If we don’t have to focus on one thing for an extended period of time, we may lose the ability to focus on that one thing. And the potential danger of some social media platforms is that they make it very easy to pay attention to something for 15 seconds, and then something new comes along.”
A constant influx of content works hand in hand with the continuous stream of notifications to pull you off task. You may think you’re paying attention in class, but the buzz or chirp from your phone pulls you away more than you realize.
“Most people have more trouble multitasking than they think,” Fuegen said. “What dings and pings do is they divert our attention away from one thing to another… If we’re not focused on one thing, like what’s happening in class, then we are not learning as much as we could.”
If anyone has watched the evolution of distractions and phones in the classroom, it’s Director of University Connect and Persist (UCAP), Peg Adams. Since 1989, she’s been teaching and serving in student support roles within UCAP, FUEL NKU, and the Care Closet at NKU.
“I mean, people would be distracted just by each other, you know, before cell phones,” she said. “But it was a lot different.”
“You’re standing up there, and you’re trying to get students to participate in a conversation, and they’re all focused on their phones, or many of them are. So, they’re completely disengaged from what’s going on among their peers and within the conversation.”
From her time standing at the front of a classroom to hosting workshops or events for UCAP, the goal is to engage people, but cell phones pose a big challenge.
“How do you compete with all the stuff that’s coming through to take attention away?” Adams said.
To Adams, phone habits are all about time management. For high school students entering college, she acknowledges the struggle it can be to adjust to a new routine.
“They’re still learning what’s required of being a college student… classes go much more quickly in a semester… they may think they have more time to be on their phones,” she said.
Even as you continue through college at the beginning of semesters, assignments seem to only trickle in. Adams says students risk getting a “false expectation” that things aren’t going to ramp up. You may catch yourself falling behind because you didn’t do what you could to “get a head start or stay up with things”.
When students come to the UCAP office for help, Adams doesn’t hear their phones being blamed directly. However, phones get in the way of managing their time effectively.
“Sometimes we’ll talk about different ways people are spending their time. And, you know, I’ll find out that maybe that students are spending a lot of time on their phones, you know, looking at videos on social media,” she said.
When your phone is eating up too much of your time, it also eats away at how much attention you can give to class or studying.
“If you’re trying to work on something and you’re distracted, your mind isn’t going to retain what it needs to… because it’s fragmented,” Adams said. “It’s too fleeting.”
For Heib, that fragmentation doesn’t just show up in missed deadlines or slacking grades; it changes how she feels about herself. When she’s stuck scrolling, it’s not always funny memes or videos; it includes aspirational, lifestyle, and product content.
“Sometimes my TikTok will stress me out, because it’s like setting up expectations for my life that just aren’t realistic,” she said.
Dr. Fuegen mentions studies that have been done where people detox from social media for a month. Those people reported experiencing better moods and enjoying the activities they substituted for social media. She said when people went back to using social media, they had a better understanding of its effects.
“I think that’s something worthwhile to consider for anybody who feels addicted, is to stop and pay attention to how you feel… and how you spend your time. … The key is to become aware of how it affects you”.
Heib tried a detox like this when her therapist recommended it. She said she gave it a week but felt like she was “out of the loop and missing out”. When she catches herself scrolling instead of studying, she says she feels like she’s “just passing through life”.
“I mean the word for it, I guess, is lazy, but it’s not our fault completely. We’re all just stuck,” she said.
If phones are so embedded in college students’ lives, what can they do to get ‘un-stuck’?
In the survey, every respondent said they have experimented with different strategies to focus better while studying. They’ve tried things like screen time limits, focus modes, leaving their phone in another room, and even uninstalling apps. 41% of students said do not disturb/focus modes were the most effective tactic.
However, a handful of students said nothing felt like it helped them resist picking up their phone.
Adams recommends studying yourself and your habits as a good starting point.
“If you literally recorded how you’re spending your time in a day, even just a few hours, being very diligent and honest with yourself, I think that would be very eye-opening,” she said.
From there, she lays out how to go about organizing your time. Block your day by giving every hour a “purpose”. Adams suggests “give each hour a name”. Look at what blocks are taken up by class, by work, and other obligations.
“And then you take a look, and you see, oh my goodness, there’s these blocks of time that I didn’t even realize were open.”
That’s where you see when you can intentionally allow yourself downtime to relax or spend time on your phone. With the time you have blocked for studying, Adams suggests a go-to routine to cue your brain. Have your dedicated study spot, like a quiet room at home or a secluded desk in the library.
“When you have a routine, your brain is locking into, okay, I’m here… this is the time that I study and I focus,” Adams said.
That strategy aligns with what Fuegen compares our minds to.
“It’s useful to think of the mind as a part of the body that you have to exercise, and you have to use in order to strengthen it. Just like you would lift weights to strengthen your muscles, you also have to train yourself to focus in order to strengthen your mind,” she said.
Just like any habit, breaking away from your phone won’t happen overnight. Adams encourages students to start with some self-reflection, asking themselves, “Is this behavior helping me or hurting me in my bigger, larger goal?” She says, then, take baby steps tackling “micro-goals” and acknowledging “Oh, wow, today, instead of picking up my phone, I spent time, you know, doing XYZ”.
“And then before you know it, I mean, with consistency, you’ve developed a whole different habit or set of behaviors for yourself.”
Celebrating each step towards progress includes how students see themselves. It’s “not just about the phone,” Adams says, “but about visualizing yourself in a more positive light”. She says it’s more helpful when a student is “visualizing success and being confident in their ability” than feeling bad about their current challenge.
For any students who feel like they could use support, UCAP is a place to start. In the University Center, office 120, students can find resources to help them manage their time, form better study skills, and other personal or academic challenges. Students can walk in, email ucap@nku.edu, or schedule an appointment online. NKU’s PLUS program provides tutoring, help with note-taking and prepping for exams. The first-year Student Success Hub connects students with peer coaches who can relate to the stress and adjustment of being in college.
Heib said she won’t say goodbye to her phone anytime soon. But she has seen a shift in how she controls her scrolling. At home, she leaves her phone upstairs if she’s studying downstairs. She sets up a study timer and takes breaks to catch up on notifications on her phone that came in while in focus mode.
“I think making my phone less of a major aspect of my life has really helped…. Spending as much time on it as I did held me back, but now, I see it’s… something I can use to add to my life, which helps me be able to put it down when I need to,” she said.
