“Maybe if I keep refreshing it a new grade will come out,” I thought to myself as I slouched over my desk in class, discreetly holding my phone between my legs. For what had undoubtedly been the fifth time in five minutes, I methodically dragged my finger down the screen and watched as the app gathered what I hoped to be new information.

Yet, to my dismay, nothing had changed over the past five minutes, leaving me to question the commitment of my math teacher who was yet to grade my test from last period.

This went on for quite some time, but my teacher eventually caught sight of my phone and asked me to stop texting immediately. When I told her that I was just checking my grades, she responded, “Yeah, right! Like you have been looking at your grades for the past ten minutes.”

All I could do was try my best to laugh along with her, knowing full well that I had been doing exactly that.

What I spent so long looking at, of course, was the Home Access Center app. Designed by Dylan Diamond ’17, the app provides Staples students with up-to-date grades within each of their classes, as well as their current academic and overall GPA. While this may sound appealing, similar to me, many students have been affected by suffering from increased stress levels and addiction.

“I’m so tempted to look at it whenever I’m on my phone. It’s just so easy to access, and it puts a lot of pressure on me,” Shelby Lake ’17 said.

Especially when considering the stressful environment of Staples, where I know many students who will reconsider their life choices upon receiving a B on a test, the addition of this app is simply too much for some people to handle.

So, to any anxiety-prone readers who, like me, can’t last a class period without checking the overly convenient Home Access Center app, my advice is simple: distract yourself.

While the ideal solution would be to delete the app, I know from personal experience how difficult that can be. Instead, try to resist the urge to open it, and divert your attention to talking to friends or even playing iPhone games.

Maybe we can try to put our phones away during class and pay attention to our teachers. After all, if we are going to continue checking the app, we should at least be happy with what we see.