A REMINDER.
A requirement is due tomorrow, posted in the class group chat just an hour ago. For most senior high school students, the line between school and everything else stopped existing the moment it all moved into one device. The same phone that holds their music, their conversations and their escape now also holds their deadlines.
Jupiter Lim, a Grade 11 ABM student at the University of Cebu, knows the feeling well.
“The device is more of something to escape reality,” he said. “To feel relief, even if it meant to only enjoy it temporarily.”
But the escape rarely lasts. Requirements follow him home, landing in the same chats he opens to unwind. He describes a mentality he tries to hold onto: schoolwork is for school, home is for family. The phone makes that boundary hard to keep.
“Whenever I feel stagnant, stressed, under academic pressure, I keep using my phone as a pacifying device,” he said.
Earl Baring Enriquez, a Grade 11 HUMSS student at La Consolacion College Liloan, sees it differently. For him, the phone is a tool that demands discipline more than it causes harm.
“If you aren’t set on time management, you won’t hesitate to miss a performance task,” he said. “But for announcements, we’d highly recommend checking notifications so you don’t miss daily updates.”
He has felt the overstimulation too, with performance tasks, activities, quizzes, all arriving at once.
“Some nights I’d be shifting between all assignments simultaneously. It gets frustrating. But in the end, it gets fixed,” he said.
A 2024 study on Filipino students found that digital device engagement and stress are directly linked. Students reported a constant need to have their phones nearby just to keep up.
Most reached for it within minutes of waking and checked it again before sleeping. For most students, the device is never fully a school tool or a personal one. It is both and the line between the two stopped existing a long time ago.
The notifications keep coming. By now, putting it down feels like the harder thing.
Alexis Silvederio / San Carlos School of Cebu Senior High School