Our lives have changed during this unprecedented time of the coronavirus, especially in our education system at Bellarmine. We have worked towards an alternative in the growing app, “Zoom,” which has made teaching and learning from home much easier. However, the amount of screen time for students has increased by a large percentage by staying at home doing school.

Before the virus the U.S had averaged 3 hours on their smartphones or tablet. A poll involving students screen time was taken using 10 Bellarmine students asking how much time is spent on their iPad and the average produced was a whopping 7 ½ hours. Considering the schedule at Bellarmine, students spend an average of 4 hours during the designated school hours and around 3 ½ hours for homework and other activities on their iPad.

Bellarmine has done its best possible job with trying to balance the amount of time we spend on our screens, by cutting classes from 80 minutes to 60 minutes halfway through this year. This has allowed students to have moments during school hours to disconnect and go outside or take time in general to be away from screens. This is a very important move from Bellarmine which will help the students develop instead of being lost in their screen.