Slashdot Mirror


Schools Are Locking Students' Phones Away to Help With Concentration (fortune.com)

Students at a California high school are getting less screen time since the school implemented a ban on cellphone use during the school day. From a report: After one teacher at San Lorenzo High School brought pouches, created by the tech start-up Yondr, into her classroom to lock away students' phones, the entire school began using them from the beginning of the school day at 8 a.m. until the end of the day at 3:10 p.m. According to a 2018 study from the Pew Research Center, more than half of teens said they felt loneliness, anxiety, or upset in the absence of a cellphone. The study also found that girls were more likely to feel these sentiments than boys.

"If something feels weird about modern life to young kids who are dealing with a lot of angst and anxiety in general, maybe it has something to do with relating to the world primarily through a screen eight hours a day," Yondr's founder Graham Dugoni told CNBC. Students said they initially felt awkward and annoyed having their phones taken away during the school day, but added that they started to see more teens interacting with each other. One student added that not having a phone in class helped with concentration.

2 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Why a pouch? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just require students to keep them in their lockers (existing tech) for the duration of school. Privacy concerns can be addressed by locked/encrypted phones. Theft may be a problem, but that's an argument for not buying Buffy and Brittany a $1000 e-leash. But ... what about an emergency? Students survived for decades without phones in class...

  2. Symptoms of Addiction by Zorro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If someone feels this in abcence of Alcohol they are called an Alcoholic.

    If someone feels this in abcence of a drug they are called a Drug Addict.

    It is the SAMETHING!