School in 2023 is highly individual I believe because people are becoming more distracted. Society as a whole has also become more individual, a lot of that is because of the forwarding level of technology and social media. This creates an environment where people are preoccupied from the present moment and may cause people to become isolated and alone. Some people will disagree and say that they socialize on their phone, but that is not near the same as socializing in person and physically interacting with one another.
I have a unique perspective on high school, because until fall of 2023 I was homeschooled and did not attend a public school for classes. I participated in classes with peers, but the environment was quite different. The biggest difference I believe is the use of technology and phone access during class. I used a computer at home, and I have an iphone that I am probably on more than I should, but during my classes my phone was put away. I was surprised my first week that students either solely communicated through their phones over break, or played games, physically conversing was non existent.
The school has established rules to limit cell phone use. These rules decrease the amount students are on their phones, but it doesn’t take away the addictive habit we have of constantly picking up our phones when given the opportunity. Once students are given a break, the phone is the first thing they go to and then they are off to their next class. The school does a good job of attempting to create more social interaction and building a community with seminars, extracurricular activities, and events, but I believe cell phones and technology are holding us back from reaching that goal. Cell phones and other technology are not going anywhere, and they are useful tools, but we need to remember they are tools. Covid taught us that technology cannot replace community and social interaction, thus we need to understand the importance of face-to-face interaction with others. All in all, being a high schooler in 2023 can be difficult in terms of social interaction because the cell phone has become such a distraction to our peers around us. Everyone lives with an attachment to their phone, and this causes a lack of being present in school in 2023.