As online media services like Netflix become more popular, entertainment is at the fingertips of students at all times.Students spend more time engaged in media, which raises the question as to whether this harms their academic performance.

Chandler Kowtko, a junior at Carlmont said, “I use Netflix a few times a week. Maybe three to four. It hasn’t affected my work at all though. If I have to work I don’t go on it, simple as that. But sometimes I know that I can go and watch something online and still fit in all of my work in the evening.”

That is the central issue for parents and teachers alike, do students affect their perfomance by consuming too much media?

Netflix alone accounts for approximately 33% of peak internet traffic in North America, according to Sandvine’s 2011 report. That doesn’t even factor in Hulu, Amazon and Youtube. According to Sandvine, Netflix is the main driver behind evening internet usage, and daily traffic overall.

Video rental businesses like Blockbuster are going out of business left and right. Blockbuster itself filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and brought home the idea that this was the age of streaming.

Not all students may have the self control to regulate their internet usage and make sure they can do all of their work properly and watch programs online.The trend is alarming to some teachers and parents, who see their kids spending more time in front of their computers not doing their work.

AP English Language and Composition teacher Gail Langkusch said of this trend, “Students increasingly use it as a distraction from their work. Every year the quality of work slips a little more, students are losing the ability to read critically and are making more mistakes in their work at home.”

Langkusch added, “All of this stuff is good if it is used properly. Turn it all off when you’re working, but use it for intellectual purposes. Read columns and articles. Those types of things force students to think critically and analyze.”

A study by Patricia Greenfield of  the UCLA Children’s Digital Media Center has revealed that critical reading and analysis skills have been on a slow decline over the past few years as technology becomes more widespread.

As media becomes more prevalent, it follows that students may get more distracted and their quality will drop off.

Some kids will always find ways to circumvent restrictions placed on them, the only way student work will remain of the same quality or even improve will be if students themselves learn to budget their time effectively and know when to shut everything off and focus.

As good as that sounds on paper, the reality is that online media is making it harder and harder to focus on the important things, and hopefully students will learn to adjust as time goes on. Online media is here to stay and will only get more prevalent in our day to day lives.