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

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

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.

5 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...

    1. Re:Why a pouch? by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's what schools do. Or they just tell the students to turn it off and put it in their existing backpack. But Yondr paid some school to use their bags and they are going to get a mention on Fortune. It is the "new journalism".

    2. Re:Why a pouch? by Aristos+Mazer · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's a principle called "in loco parentis" in US law that says, yes, schools do have exactly the right to limit student communications. It's why schools can have things like detention. In most US states, they have rights to do most of what a parent could do (most limits are on physical punishments). The Supreme Court has ruled explicitly on the ability to limit the First Amendment rights of students -- the school has to have strong reason to do so, but it can be done, and speech that disrupts the classroom is acceptable reason.

  2. Good. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I hope more schools do this. Wean them off smartphones and their addiction to them.

  3. 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!