A device-ive debate: should smartphones be banned in school?
Another tech moral panic or a genuine cause for concern?
The digital revolution holds immeasurable potential but, just as warnings have been voiced for how it should be regulated in society, similar attention must be paid to the way it is used in education. - Audrey Azoulay
Are smartphones just another moral panic similar to every other technological innovation over the last 50 years? Doom and gloom predictions swept societies when radio, TV, and the internet entered our lives, and now a similar sentiment surrounds smartphones. The notion of banning of smartphones in schools is gaining popularity and as concerned as I am with the effect devices are having on youths, enforced bans are not necessarily the answer.
Restrictions without an education about the detriments of excess are pointless. Whether it's smartphones or other addictions, young adults need to be weaponised with information and critical thinking to navigate the many freedoms they will face in the real world. Then, they can make up their own minds.
“Would you have liked a social media ban until you were 16?”, she asked, “Would the ban affect everyone?” and paused to think. “Yes, I’d have liked that,”
A conversation between Helen Rumbelow and her daugter.
That being said, more than half of teens admit to being addicted to their phones and, excessive use is linked with mental health disorders, increased rates of suicide, sleep disturbances, and friendship issues, especially among teenage girls. The size of the problem hit me personally, when I witnessed the substitutes on the bench at a schools rugby match were all sitting on TikTok, something that, not long ago, would have been unthinkable.
Either way, the nose-diving trends in youth mental health suggest something drastic needs to happen, and maybe a phone free school day might be what is needed to turn things around.
The benefits of smartphones in school
Correlation doesn’t equal causation, and research is usually related to specific applications within smartphones, like social media. Whether we like it or not, smartphones themselves are a third limb now, and are useful for:
Communication: After-school club changes, lunchtime football matches and finding out where the exam is, are much easier with a phone.
Socialising: A significant chunk of young people’s socialisation happens on a phone, which reaches further than just the school hallway.
Organisation. Calendars, note-taking, files sharing, to-do lists, photos, and alarms are all useful applications that can make school life easier.
Education: Online research, podcasts, YouTube, research, engaging educational applications, multimedia tools, flexible access and co-operation opportunities can take place on the phone.
Music: This can enhance focus when studying or to switch off when relaxing.
However, we could just use an old-school flip-phone and a laptop.
The benefits of a school smartphone ban
“We’re seeing kids in outside areas playing games, throwing balls, reading books and generally interacting more positively rather than having heads down on a phone.” - Khush Patel
Phones are distracting and constant streams of notifications pinging can form bad habits to the point that “phantom phone vibrations” is now a term. Students with attention difficulties suffer more than most. Research into the effect of phone restrictions is growing, and the results are positive:
Consistency: Removing the pressure of persuasive apprehension (aka FOMO) helps promote a community buy in.
Academic achievement: Improvements in learning have been observed, especially among lowest achieving students.
Increased focus: It can take 20 minutes to refocus on a task after a distraction, and removing the phone can increase attention span.
Classroom management: Eliminating reminders to put phones away prevents the wasting of teaching time.
Socialising. Children are forced to talk to each other and observe their surroundings without phones. An increase in playground chatter has been observed.
Well-being: Students experienced more face-to-face social opportunities, reduced feelings of missing out and an improvement in the development of social cues and skills.
Cyber-bullying: As well as being harder to monitor, the physical detachment of anonymity increases the likelihood of aggressive behaviour and willingness to spread malicious content. There is also evidence of a reduction in overall levels of bullying in schools.
Mental health: Having a detox from dopamine can benefit student well-being as well as improved sleep, reduced feelings of resentment, fewer incidents of suicidal ideation and an improved body-image.
Reduced exposure to social media: Evidence of the negative effects of social media on young people, and especially teenage girls, is growing. Breaks from social media can reduce psychological issues and improve school performance.
Jonathan Haidt, a psychologist at the forefront of these issues, has put together a collaborative document which follows the growing research in this area.
So! There were millions of teens who drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes yet that didn't stop or prevent the legal drinking age from being raised to 21 and the Legal age to smoke being raised to 18. All we need is the will to do it. On the other hand if we as a nation are not willing to protect the mental health of our children by limiting their access to social media until they are adults. Then we have no right to complain of their continuing declining mental health issues. In other words those complaining but unwilling to do what needs to be done about it need to put up or shut up.
No one under 18 should be allowed to have a social media account and game apps should be age restricted as well.
During homeroom students should be required to put their phones on silent and verified by the homeroom teachers.
Text books should be digitalized and distributed to students phones to be used in class and at home.
Students should be able to download library books from a central data base throughout the entire year including during the summer and holidays.
These are just a few suggestions and more importantly students should be taught that phones are tools and how to use them properly and appropriately.