The Case for Banning Phones in School
This week’s newsletter will be brief because your boy has a flight to catch. If you’re a Tacoma based reader, you may see me around town for the next few weeks or so. As a heads up, I will be recording Nerd Farmer Episode #200 on June 29 with a live audience at the Press Room in Opera Alley. Tickets are available now—they cost free-ninety-nine and I would love to see you there.
Now to the meat of things… I’m always surprised by what sparks a response from readers. Last week, I wrote about The Wire and the self-inflicted wounds of crypto and finance bros that got in hot water with the SEC. In Bits and Recs, I mentioned the issue of cellphones in school and how I think banning them from schools isn’t the worst idea. That provoked some strong responses. One in particular pushed me into the “yeah, we should do it column.” Before I share those, I want to lay out some thoughts.
I am generally reluctant to embrace “bans” as a solution to a problem. I think the War on Drugs is/was among the gravest injustices of my lifetime. I believe prohibitions on gambling and sports betting are dumb—who cares if someone wants to put 20 bucks on the Timbers to lose. The current book banning spree conservative culture warriors are pushing is gross and ripped straight out mid-twentieth century European history. I thought the recent congressional hearing and talk about banning Tik Tok was a flashing red light on the US’ slide into both state censorship and stupidity. I could go on.
But given all that, I still think I am down with a ban or more precisely a time, place, and manner restriction on adolescent phone use at school. Because smartphones are a fairly recent innovation, we don't have a ton of long-term research on the topic. But what we do know is bad. Here’s the skinny from the National Library of Medicine:
An observational study showed that spending more than a few hours per week using electronic media correlated negatively with self-reported happiness, life satisfaction and self-esteem, whereas time spent on non-screen activities (in-person social interactions, sports or exercise, print media, homework, religious services, working at a paid job) correlated positively with psychological well-being, among adolescents. Other observational studies have linked spending more than 2 hours a day on social networking sites and personal electronic devices with high rates of suicidality and depressive symptoms among adolescent girls, although youth who sustained high levels of face-to-face socializing were relatively protected against the negative consequences of too much time online.
That part about “in-person social interactions” having a positive impact on well-being is essential. Listen, I am not C. Doleres Tucker and this isn’t a screed about banning kids from the internet. Online connectivity, like cured meats, are gifts from on-high. My life would be fundamentally more poor without the internet and without salami. But I wouldn’t try to subsist on a diet of salami, prosciutto, chorizo, and bacon (and if I did, I hope someone would intervene). That’s basically where I am on this topic. Too many students in too many schools have a diet of laptop screen time in class and social media screen time out of it. Schools should be a place where we encourage prosocial behavior and human interaction. Banning phones on campuses would encourage more of that.
You all felt the same way. Here’s a reply from a reader P.C. that is representative of the feedback that was sent:
FWIW, one of the reasons we chose [redacted: description of school], was because they have a pretty decent social media policy—they have a big board with a bunch of pockets hanging by the door, and on the way into the classroom the kids just drop their phones in.
Boom. Easy peasy for the teachers, now, because there's a very absolute no-mobiles policy, and if you see a kid with their phone in their hands (or on their desk or anything) then it's immediately confiscated and sits in the head's office for at least a day or two (he's notoriously slow to contact parents and arrange a pickup... intentionally) before it goes back.
And somehow, breaking that physical connection kind of leads to the kids not being quite so glued to the damn things even OUTSIDE of the classroom.
Reader R.G. added:
It's for the social-emotional well-being of these kids. My own [redacted info about the gender of RG’s children] get anxiety about having interactions with people when they have business to take care of. We ALL have that anxiety. But because these kids are always on their phones, normal social interactions become HARD because they don't engage with them that often. The more you interact with others, the easier it gets.
Although some folks get squeamish about it, schools are tools and venues of socialization into a culture's norms. The three decisions that I have made that had the biggest impact on my happiness are marrying Hope, taking the plunge to teach overseas, and getting the hell off Twitter. I am still online. Like, obviously I am not writing this on a typewriter like Cormac McCarthy (who sadly we lost this week) but I think getting students off their phones on campus would in the long run have the same positive impact on students.
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See you next week!
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