It’s no secret that cell phones play a massive role in the lives of kids. For most, they’re something it seems they can’t live without. But while most kids view their phones as crucial objects in their lives, adults tend to disagree, saying they’re distractions that shouldn’t be allowed in schools.
Frequent phone use during class hasn’t gone unnoticed, but policies have remained largely unchanged in New York until now. Fourteen states have already passed laws approving banning phones in schools, and Kathy Hochul is looking to bring this legislation to NY.
But is banning phones really the best way to combat this problem? To answer that question, it’s important to understand just how much time the average high schooler spends on their phone per day.
According to the CDC, the average 15-18 year old spends around seven and ½ hours on their phone per day, with outliers within this age group reporting a daily screen time of 16 hours. In addition to spending seven hours on their phone, the average highschooler also spends roughly seven hours a day in school; The combination of both doesn’t leave much room for studying, doing homework and pursuing extracurriculars while also getting a healthy amount of sleep.
I interviewed five students about how they felt about a potential phone ban. I asked each student the same three questions:
1: Do you feel like you spend too much time on your phone?
2: How would you feel about phones being banned from schools?
3: What problems do you think a school-wide phone ban could cause?
You might be surprised by how similar their answers were to each other. Three out of the five students interviewed agreed that they spend too much time on their phones. Although each student’s answer was slightly different, all of them stated they were opposed to having phones banned from school. When asked about problems a phone ban might cause, they each listed a few potential problems. Four out of five students mentioned that phones are useful in case of an emergency; one mentioned that completing school work on your phone is helpful when your computer isn’t working. Three said that they like being able to use their phones in class because they like being able to listen to music while they work. Lastly, three out of five kids told me a phone ban would upset students, causing them to rebel and end up using their phones more than they would if a ban was never put in place to begin with.
Even though teachers aren’t physically fighting against phones, they do need to compete with them to win over their students' attention. Like any battle, there are two sides of the story. At the end of the day, phones can be incredibly helpful tools if we work with them rather than against them.