COLUMN: Students should relax more, multitask less

Exactly a week ago, I dropped my brand new iPhone into a toilet — a clean toilet, but a toilet nonetheless. As it turns out, iPhones don’t like being dropped in toilets, even if they’re put in rice for the next 48 hours. After self-loathing and tears, I began to reflect on my time with my two-week old phone. Yes, it was that new.

Like most millennials, I’m always on my phone. My mom is fairly critical of the habit and throws a temper tantrum every time I pull it out during dinner or when she’s trying to talk to me; however, up until a week ago I didn’t really see the problem. After all, I always considered myself good at multitasking.

But actually, I’m pretty bad at it. I think that I’m so busy and  I have to do many different things at once, but then my attention becomes divided and I make mistakes. And people who are always on their phone multitasking drop their beautiful, thumbprint-sensitive phones into toilets.

Easing down on multitasking — and slowing down in general — can prevent mistakes for most busy college students. Around campus, pedestrians who are on their phones often get hit by cyclists. I, for one, have been the biker dodging people who aimlessly meander while talking on the phone. Unfortunately, I’ve also been the pedestrian nearly hit by a biker because I’m on my phone and not focused on my whereabouts.

Researchers have referred to these glued-to-their-phones walkers as “digital deadwalkers.” In an article in the Washington Post, Alan S. Hilibrand of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons claims that “60 percent of pedestrians are distracted while walking, meaning either on the phone or doing something on their phone.”

In the same article, Hilibrand even said that he’s seen people come into the emergency room who were hit by cars because “they’re looking at their phone and not paying attention to the fact that a vehicle is making a turn.”

According to Hilibrand, in 2005, 256 pedestrians received hospital treatment for injuries they received while walking and using their phones; and that number grew sixfold by 2010. It sounds ridiculous, and though it might not be society’s biggest problem, it is a problem that can be easily solved: We can put down our phones and, as cliché as it is, stop and smell the roses.

The problem of constant phone reliance also exposes the fact that in college — especially at an academically rigorous and competitive college like USC — we feel the need to move at a superhuman pace. We need to get everything done in a short amount of time, which often involves having our phones glued to our sides.

Students are encouraged to intern, work, take the maximum amount of units, join clubs and have a social life. I personally feel like I always need to always have my phone on me in case I receive an important email, call or text, whether related to work, school or my social life.

There’s so much going on all the time that there’s a nonstop pressure to do everything. I recently had a friend confide in me that he felt as though he was doing way less than everyone else and felt the need to join more activities just to compare to his friends. In a school of overachievers, we have to keep busy to keep up.

However, sometimes we unfortunately turn to our phones to provide a feeling of involvement and importance. If I’m always walking while on the phone, I’m busy — I’m searching something, I’m responding to important correspondence and, most significantly, I’m not wasting any time.

From now on, I plan to make a conscious effort to set my phone down — and maybe not keep it in my’ back pocket — in order to both prevent mistakes and distractions and to hopefully slow down my life a little bit. And I suggest other students consider the same — because our college campus is a “digital deadwalker” disaster waiting to happen.

Learn from my mistakes. Put your phone down and, hey, maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones who doesn’t drop it in a toilet.

Mollie Berg is a senior majoring in communication. Her column, “All in a Day’s Work,” runs every other Wednesday.