.         Early on the morning of March 17th, I glanced at my friend’s phone in BC Calc.

.         “Seriously?” I asked, noticing her playing Block Blast. 

.         Not even ten seconds had passed since our teacher had told us we were done for the period.

.         “Bro, I swear this game is rigged. Look! I can’t even make any moves,” she responded. 

.         I rolled my eyes, clearly uninterested in her dilemma.

.         Ever since the start of second semester, Block Blast, a phone game, has stolen away more of the already short attention span of students at Westfield. It’s hard to go a single period without seeing at least one fellow classmate entranced into sequencing different shaped blocks together to clear rows. Usually, I don’t care, but when MY friends prefer playing a matching game for third graders over listening to my totally important rants on absolutely anything and everything that went wrong that morning, I start to get annoyed.

.         “I genuinely don’t see why it’s so popular,” Ayisha Asharaf, 12. “I guess it could be addicting.”

.         When asked if she thought Block Blast affected her academics, Lakshita Kamireddy, 12, defended herself, “No, it’s like a fun stress free game. Want to see my high score?”

.         Asharaf responded, “Yes, for sure. My friend is never paying attention in Calculus, bro!”

.         “One time I saw her play behind her water bottle,” Kamireddy added about the same friend.

.         Although Block Black enthusiasts may not yet be ready to admit that their academic downfall is in part to their addiction to the game, that’s okay because it’s obvious. I can ensure you, Block Blasters, your teacher is not the problem, it is you.