Distracted at school?
Do you know the phone policy for your school? My guess is you don’t, because most likely your school doesn’t have one. When I was in high school there was a strict ‘no phones or pagers’ policy- I know, I’m aging myself here! Technology has been made more acceptable in every realm of life over the last 2 decades, invading formerly sacred spaces that should be distraction-free, like classrooms. Teachers want them out, and as it turns out, so do most parents and kids.
In a recent anonymous survey of 286 high schoolers, 71% stated that they believe middle schoolers should not have access to their phones during class time. One student reports, “I'm so distracted by my phone, so it's hard to like, listen to a teacher and actually understand what they're saying. I find myself having to go to a teacher after school or something and get help one-on-one because that way you can't have your phone out.”
Do you feel this way? Would it be nice if everyone just didn’t have the option of being on their phones during classtime? Many schools are going this route.
Our phones are so powerful- I struggle with not checking mine regularly if it’s in eyesight, and I am a grown woman whose career is in mental wellbeing! The area of the brain responsible for impulse control is not fully developed until you’re in your mid-twenties…yup. That’s right. So it’s totally not your fault that you can’t ignore your devices. What we now know, is that students with access to their phones fail to consistently engage in face-to-face time with friends and classmates, and struggle to focus in class. These struggles create academic and emotional consequences.
For example, one study of workers found that just having their devices available to them while trying to accomplish tasks lowered their functional IQ 10 points. This is double the hit your IQ would take than if you had just smoked weed. Employed adults would be better able to accomplish tasks stoned than while being interrupted by texts and emails.
If that doesn’t convince you that we need a phone policy for your school, consider that being unplugged will help you develop valuable executive functioning and distress tolerance skills AND security experts say phones can actually make kids less safe during an emergency for these reasons:
1) Kids with phones are more distracted and prone to not hearing/following instructions.
2) The sound of a phone, either ringing or on vibrate, could alert an assailant to their location.
3) The assailant could be monitoring the whereabouts of students on social media
4) Victims and worried family members trying to get through can jam communication, interfering with first responders’ efforts.
So consider talking with your parents or your school about what it would be like to have a ‘phone-free’ campus. Others might be thinking the same thing.