We all know the drill: arrive at first hour just as the bell rings. Right away, the announcements sound throughout the school, but no one is listening. People continue to talk, sleep, or Snapchat.

If no one is listening, are these announcements even announcements anymore? Without an audience that is paying attention, they are just a person blabbing on about “important” school events, that few are going to attend because the majority was too busy scrolling through Instagram.

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An NBC News article states: “some students…can’t concentrate on homework for more than two minutes without distracting themselves by using social media.” If students become distracted with homework, how would they not be distracted while listening to announcements they deem unimportant?

Sophomore Zoe Baab, said she listens to the announcements but said most of her class doesn’t listen because it’s full of juniors that have learned the fine art of tuning things out.

To be more involved with our school, and just simply respectful, I think we should be listening to the announcements. As Sophomore Jassa Chang-Weinberg said, “the only way to get information around is through announcements. It’s either that or hang fliers and that’s a pain in the butt to do.”

It’s problematic that some students, for example first hour orchestra kids, can’t even listen to the announcements. Sophomore Jaya Hofer said,  “No one in that class really listens to the announcements because you can’t hear it.”. Announcements cut into class time so some teachers have their students continue to work.

Another reason that comes into play is students are just simply distracted. All three girls I interviewed said even if their class is quiet there are several students on their phones.

The NBC news article discusses how several studies show “…information learned while partially distracted is often quickly forgotten.” This means if you’re listening to the announcements while checking up on social media, you’re more prone to forget the information.

So what is a good solution to this dilemma? One fix is to make the announcements shorter so more students will pay attention.

If we have advisory before our first period, students will be more likely to listen. Jassa said her old school in China had advisory and the teacher would read off the announcements. This is smart since people usually pay more attention when someone is talking to them face to face.

As for us students, we need to realize we cannot text or talk to our friends and still retain full information from the announcements.