Awareness

10 Harmful Effects of Mobile Phones on Students

Written By

Jagruti Rehab

Last Updated on: 12 Apr 2025

The use of mobile phones by students has integrated into modern education and social life. Even though mobile phones present several advantages like easy access to information, there are significant disadvantages of mobile phones that can damage the students' physical, emotional, and academic wellbeing. Mobile phones are detrimental to students' concentration on their studies. Apart from that, it causes mental and physical health problems, along with addiction. In this blog, we'll go through the 10 harmful effects of mobile phones on students.  We aim to help parents and educators understand how essential moderation in mobile usage will be for children. In so doing, we would support healthy behaviours for our students to improve their school performance and well-being.

The Importance of Digital Detox for Students

A digital detox can improve the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of students.

• Students spend much time away from their mobile phones, therefore, helping them to focus on studies and decrease the levels of stress.
• A detox can encourage good sleep. A few hours less on the screen will most definitely bring about improved quality of sleep.
• Students acquire social and emotional well-being through offline activities such as reading, sports, or even the amount of quality time with their families, thus decreasing the bad effect of mobile phones.

10 Harmful Effects of Mobile Phones on Students

The following are the 10 bad effects of mobile phones on students:

1. Distraction from Study

One of the bad effects of mobiles on students is continuous distraction from education. Cell phone usage, messaging apps, and other entertainment media always remind a student of social media that distracts them during their studies. Other ways in which mobiles distract students from studying are:

• Lowered cognitive abilities: Research proves that students who are often distracted by their mobile phones have reduced cognitive abilities.
• Poor academic performance: An exemplary negative impact of mobile phones on students' life includes the lack of concentration. It results in an incomplete assignment, low grades, and academic struggles.

2. Sleep Disturbance

The research found in the Journal of Adolescence finds that 75% of adolescent teenagers sleep and use mobile phones at night affects their well-being. It also causes:

• Disruption in sleep schedule: The excessive use of mobile phones especially at night influences the sleep schedule of the learners.
• Impacts on the sleep hormone: Melatonin production is diminished by blue lights emitted by smartphones, hence impossible to sleep early.
• Insomnia: Lousy sleep leads to lowered energy and concentration abilities. It affects subsequent academic performance.

3. Mental Health Problems

There is a significant impact of smartphones on students' mental health. Some of the most common ones include:

• Development of anxiety: Constantly being exposed to social media has led to the development of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem among most students due to comparison with others.
• Over-reliance on social validation: Social validation by likes and comments increases the level of stress and vulnerability to emotional disturbances.
• Higher mental disorder: It has been discovered that the side effects of mobile phones are associated with increased mental disorders among students.

4. Health Issues

The disadvantages of mobile phones extend to the physical health of students. It includes:

• Strain in the eyes: Too much screen time has been known to cause strain in the eyes, neck strain, and lousy posture.
• Musculoskeletal issues: Long hours slouching on mobile devices from childhood tend to cause long-term musculoskeletal problems in adulthood.
• Fatal diseases: These demerits of mobile phones for students may imply long-term consequences on their health and can even cause brain tumours.

5. Social Isolation

Cell phones can cause social isolation among the students. Demerits of mobile phone for students also include:

• Impede social development skills: Although they promote virtual communication, too much use of the phone discourages face-to-face interaction. These are critical in the social development of an individual.
• Loneliness: Overindulgence in phones leads to a denial of an opportunity to make real friends for the students. Instead, loneliness and isolation hang over their heads.
• Failure to engage in discussions: Another effect of mobile phones on students is their reduced ability to discuss real-life matters.

6. Cyberbullying Exposure

Students are ignorant of the various cybercrimes and how to deal with cyberbullying in case they are targeted. Almost 740,00 cases of cybercrime in India were recorded during the first quarter of 2024 itself. Higher utilisation of mobile phones by students exposes the students to cyberbullying. Here are some ways through which exposure to cyberbully due to excessive use of mobile phones by students can impact their lives:

• Cause emotional distress: Online platforms enable bullies to anonymously target students, which causes emotional distress and anxiety.
• The development of suicidal thoughts: Excessive cyberbullying may cause a student to indulge in self-harm or develop suicidal thoughts.

7. Addiction Risk

Excessive use of mobile phones results in addiction for students. It leads to:

• Low productivity: Online games, social media, and entertainment applications increase addiction leading to low productivity and concentration over studies.
• Impact on schoolwork: Impulsiveness and wrong decision-making increased by mobile addiction affect the work done in schools as well.

8. Low Cognitive Skills

Overdependence on mobile phones hampers students' cognitive skills. Here are a few ways the harmful effects of mobile phones are observed in students’ lowered cognitive skills:

• Reduces critical thinking abilities: Students mainly depend on rapid searching for answers which decreases critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• Lowers creativity: One of the significant negative effects of the impact of mobile phones on students' life is the challenges it poses to their creativity. Overdependence on mobile phones during the learning process creates little creativity and learning.

9. Exposure to Inappropriate Content

Students have curious but immature minds. Most of them fail to discern the type of content that is appropriate for them to consume. One of the prominent disadvantages of mobile phones is the difficulty it creates for an adult to supervise the content consumed by a juvenile. It leads to:

• Discover violent content: The young ones end up accessing violent, explicit content meant for adult material that changes and negatively affects their mind.
• Watch objectionable content: The device promotes access to objectionable content material. The pupils may unconsciously or intentionally do so.

Parents as well as school teachers must pay attention to whatever their children see online so they do not gain bad knowledge on it.

10. Adversely Impacts Relationship

According to a study in 2023, it was revealed that students of more than 12 years of age spend on average 47% of the day with mobile phones. Students below 12 years of age spend 42% of the day on screen. This affects the relationship of the students badly. It has several impacts on their relationships:

• Destroys communication: Mass usage destroys communication with relatives as well as family and friends.
• Loosens family bonds: Giving priority to virtual relationships over real-life relationships damages emotional well-being and weakens family bonds.

The Role of Parents and Educators in Managing Mobile Phone Usage

Parents and teachers can play an important role in handling the excessive use of mobile phones among students.

• Setting screen time guidelines: The setting of guidelines for screen time will help the students to find a balance between academics and leisure.
• Involve students in outdoor activities: Engaging students in outdoor activities and hobbies outside the digital world may improve their emotional and physical well-being.
• Educate on mobile phone usage management: Teachers should educate their students on how to manage their usage of mobile phones.

Parents can also encourage healthy behaviours by promoting those habits, whereas educators can also reduce the negative impacts of mobile phones on students.

Why Choose Jagruti Rehab to Help Your Child Recover from Mobile Addiction?

Experienced Team: Experienced professionals in the Jagruti Rehabilitation Centre will help the students overcome mobile addiction and any other negative impact of mobile phones.

Jagruti Rehab Centres in India

• Holistic Approach: The root causes of mobile addiction will be addressed using evidence-based therapeutic interventions at Jagruti Rehabilitation Centre.
• Personalised Care: Customised recovery plans will be given to every student in order to bring back their control over life.
• Supportive Environment: Jagruti Rehab is a place where the long-term recovery of students is promoted with a supportive environment.
• Continuous Guidance and Counseling: We continuously guide and counsel students to prevent relapse and ensure long-term recovery.
• Comprehensive Family Involvement: We, at Jagruti Rehabilitation Centre, involve the family in the process of recovery. Our experts guide and counsel them to develop a healthy environment for long-term success in overcoming the negative impact of smartphones on students.

Author

Jagruti Rehabilitation Centre is a leading facility specializing in mental health, dementia, and addiction recovery. The team of psychiatrists, psychologists, and caregivers is committed to empowering individuals on their journey to recovery.