Nicholas Thompson’s Post

Here is the paper I mention: https://openaccess.nhh.no/nhh-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/3119200/DP%2001.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Nicholas Thompson Did the report end with "Duh !!" ?

My point on smartphones and children may seem radical: I find the phone very useful, but access to social media harmful. That's why I'm waiting for the day when social media is considered like tobacco, alcohol, or gambling for minors. Social relationships in pre-adult stage should occur naturally, not artificially as they are now.

My kids are fortunate to go to a school that has done this pre-K through grade 8. Parents should ban smartphones at home as well. I know that's challenging fot some families because phones can be a convenient distraction - particularly for younger children when parents need a break - but it seems to me that it builds a dependence on screens for kids when they are bored. Instead of picking up a pad of paper to draw on or messing around with legos, kids with too much electronic screen access just revert to using devices and thus miss opportunities to creativity and invention.

It's so interesting. Just a few moments ago, I noticed my phone was blowing up -- parents are freaking out in our group chat about their kids (who are on a school trip, out of town) being without their phones. "It looks like they're not moving!" "Are they without their phones at the zoo?" I think we, as parents, are as much to blame for what is happening to their mental health. The anxiety that we cause them by freaking out cannot be healthy. I agree 100% that something needs to be done, and believe we neglect to think about how parents will react if they don't have CONSTANT access to their children's every move. I think everyone -- from kids to adults -- need a tech detox.

Human brains aren't wired for constant connection and being constantly aware of what everyone else thinks. I remember reading how some colleges completely banned smartphones, forcing students to turn them in at the front desk of their dorms each day, where they were only allowed to have them for an hour each evening. And surprise, surprise - students there made more real friends, were less stressed, less likely to be bullied, less anxious, and in general happier. This college did allow students to have simple pagers on their persons, which are JUST phones and nothing else, in case parents need to contact their kids in emergencies. That seems like an obvious solution to "anxious parent syndrome" fears.

I think this fundamentally misunderstands schools, the populations in them, and how learning/ socialization actually works. The context missing from these numbers is that in the real world this is a 180 from how adults work and communicate. We have to think of school as the high wire trapeze act with the net. They are supposed to fail and learn lessons in that safe place. The issues with phones in class has less to do with the kids...and more to do with the adults around them. If a kid is having problems with their phone, it is the responsibility of the adults around them to teach appropriate phone use. Most kids are just sent to school so the teachers have to raise them AND teach. If they are having a problem with bullying, that isn't the phone's fault. Even before social media and phones bullying was relentless..instead of posts you would just see them in the mall, hear rumors, and people would just show up at your home.The phone is a tool. The same hammer can build a house, or bludgeon a person. My grandparents had rock music to blame for the end of society. And now that we have survived the end from 1. Rap music, 2. video games, and now 3. Tik Tok, we should focus on the cause, not the effect.

💯 with you on this one. Here's an organized pledge that I hope more parents/schools adhere to: https://www.waituntil8th.org/

At least four white male scholars I profoundly respect have come to the same conclusion. However, I do wonder if taking the learnings from a relatively homogeneously white population in a country the size of Kansas translates to diverse communities? Did the study address that or is anyone looking at this?

I’m a high school classroom teacher, and, though this study didn’t include data from high schools, I would venture a guess that the mental health and learning benefits of phone bans would extend to upper grades as well. One of the most thought-provoking observations on this topic came from one of my 11th-grade students: he commented that classes where, as a matter of course, teachers collected phones from students at the start of class seemed “easier.” (The classes he’s referencing are physics and precalc, not ones that kids traditionally consider “easy.”) Unfortunately, without a schoolwide policy, it’s incumbent upon individual teachers to enforce classroom policies, which is confusing for kids and an emotional and mental drain on teachers. We’d rather direct our energy and attention to kids and learning. Please, caregivers and concerned citizens, lend your public support to phone bans in schools.