I came across this headline the day I accepted to write this opinion article: “CA passes bill requiring schools to devise plan to ban or limit phones during the school day”.
So discussion over. Mic drop. Just kidding.
I’ve been 16 years old, but you haven’t been 43, so I have multiple perspectives on the issue. I remember my high school years, both in and out of class. I believe the purpose of school is to help you grow, mature and learn from mistakes.
Phones don’t achieve this goal. Some would claim it makes it more challenging. I would claim this – me.
As a high school student, a phone would not have fostered personal connections, improved my ability to communicate with my peers or teachers, or helped me learn anything better. You may say, “I’m not on my phone all the time,” but connecting with others is a mutual affair.
If others are using their phones when you aren’t, you get on your phone. This normal human behavior is hard to overcome.
Two studies from The Journal of Experimental Psychology showed smartphone use undermines enjoyment of face-to-face social interactions. In the first study, over 300 community members and students were observed. Participants were randomly assigned to either use their phones or not during a meal with family and friends.
When phones were present compared to when they were absent, participants reported feeling more distracted, which diminished their enjoyment of spending time with friends and family. In the second study, participants had in-person interactions.
Again, participants reported feeling distracted and having less enjoyment when using their phones.
With the lack of a phone in my hand at school I was able to focus on what was in front of me. Being able to complete my work at school allowed me to enjoy my time outside of school as well. This alleviated any stress since I was not procrastinating. I still got to enjoy an active social life and graduated 10th in my class.
I am grateful I did not have phones during high school, both in and out of the classroom. Phones in classes would have highly diminished those times, not enhanced them. You’ve had the 16 year old experience now for the 43 year old wisdom.
As a teacher at Cal since 2005, I have seen the evolution of phone use by students. Phones were awkward texting machines for some and for many just a way to make a phone call. From my observations, an estimated 25 percent of students had no phone. When the expensive iPhone and others like it came out, more students got them.
After my first five years of teaching, most students had some kind of smartphone in their pocket when they came to school. During those first five years it was great seeing students work with each other, talk when finished with assignments, and make plans to do events outside of school. I saw fewer isolated kids.
The American Psychological Association reports decreases in psychological well-being among American adolescents after 2012 and links this to screen time during the rise of smartphone technology.
In this study 1.1 million kids in grades 8-12 were surveyed. The study showed psychological well-being was lower in years when adolescents spent more time on screens and higher in years when they spent more time on non-screen activities.
Over the next 15 years, students drastically changed at school with their phones. The distractions of notifications during class pulls anyone away from their studies and is detrimental to learning.
But I’m most displeased with what many students do after their studies may be done for the period. Most students isolate themselves with a video game, videos, personalized music playlists, or an intellectual game (ie: Wordle).
This is the time to be making connections with others. Everyone is a stranger at first. People miss chance encounters due to being on their phone. Oh, you never missed any? How could you know if you were immersed in your phone?
Phones in class enable the worst of many students, who easily take images of others and use them maliciously, or talk horribly about classmates who they don’t even interact with.
I would support a phone jail, or whatever the system, to not have phones for any students while on campus. A school without phones could not be a worse off place than it is today.
Jack Sarkany is a chemistry teacher at Cal High.
