Dear America: Students Are Better Without Phones

The iPhone is the most revolutionary product of the last two decades. This product is almost everywhere. In every single public place or area of business you walk into there is a perfect chance that a person inside there will have an iPhone.

This same applies to schools and how most students constantly look at their phones. This issue has reached a point where schools have had to take the privilege of using phones during class periods away from students.

Students from France and the Netherlands have already had to make do without their devices in schools. A recent study found that after picking up their device for 10 seconds, it takes students 20 minutes to refocus on their work. Time from student to student varies, but it gives a good idea of the effects of phones on students.

A survey conducted in 2021 found that 16% of students in America experienced cyberbullying and academics have improved vastly since phones have been eliminated from the equation. This was a first big step for schools towards reducing cell phone usage.

There is evidence to back this up as well in an article by the Harvard Gazette. “Harvard experts say instructors and administrators should consider learning how to teach with tech instead of against it.”

Having first-hand evidence, I have seen time and time over that many of my peers do not use their cell phones correctly for learning purposes. Teachers have the tools to help guide the students who care about school. Those who do not often use the phones for their intended purpose often get bad grades.

This is where the tricky part occurs. There are many kids who are perfectly capable of handling cell phones and when there are no restrictions it is difficult to let kids mature and develop self-control. There might be some circumstances where students cannot grasp the concept of self-control and I find that as a reason to train students how to manage their usage and time.

I know that it is not the teacher’s job to handle teen tendencies and it is beneficial for the future of students to teach them how to handle the workload of a regular job and managing their phone usage.

As a student, I witnessed this while on the one-week hiatus last year. We turned phones in at the beginning of the school day. It was an amazing week. There was no social pressure to have your phone out because nobody had their phones at all. I found that not having my phone made me realize FOMO is the real cause of the constant paranoia of missing out on a text. I found it helpful that I had an excuse to ignore my phone. It was also helpful in improving my focus when I was doing school work because I do not feel tempted to look at notifications.

Is that enough to allow the student to decide for themselves how they should use the phones? Maybe, but for now the best decision is to not allow them in schools.