Compréhension écrite : Seven Days Without a Screen

When the principal of Harlow Middle School announced a "Screen-Free

Week," most of the ninth graders laughed. Seven days without phones, tablets

or video games? It sounded impossible. Fourteen-year-old Maya Collins was

sure she would not last more than a day. "My phone is like my second brain,"

she told her friends. "I use it for everything – music, homework, maps, even

to know what the weather is like."

The idea came from a survey the school had carried out the year before.

It showed that students spent an average of seven hours a day looking at

screens, not including schoolwork. Many of them also said they felt tired in

class and found it hard to concentrate. The teachers wanted to see what

would happen if students took a short break. Taking part was not compulsory,

but every student who finished the week would get a free ticket to the

end-of-year concert.

Maya decided to try. The first two days were the hardest. Every few

minutes, her hand moved towards her pocket, looking for a phone that was not

there. She felt she was missing important news, and she was afraid her

friends were talking about her in group chats. At dinner, she had nothing to

do with her hands, so she started asking her parents questions about their

day. To her surprise, the conversation lasted almost an hour.

By the third day, something began to change. Without her phone to wake

her up, Maya bought an old alarm clock at a second-hand shop. She went to

bed earlier because there was no reason to stay up. In the afternoons, she

took out a guitar that had been sitting in her closet for two years and

began to practise again. She also discovered that her neighbour, an old man

named Mr. Peretz, had once been a jazz musician. He offered to teach her a

few chords, and soon their lessons became the best part of her day.

Not everyone had the same experience. Some students gave up after

twenty-four hours. Others complained that the challenge was unfair, since

many families depend on phones to stay in touch. One boy, Daniel, said that

he felt lonely because his best friend lives in another country, and they

usually talk every evening. The school listened to these concerns and

decided that next year, students will be allowed one short phone call a day.

When the week ended, Maya turned on her phone and found 312 messages

waiting for her. She read a few and then put the phone down. "Most of them

weren't important at all," she laughed. She has not given up her phone – she

still loves her playlists – but now she leaves it in the kitchen at night.

"I learned that I don't need to be available all the time," she says. "And I

learned that the people around me are much more interesting than I thought."