Well-written, covers several angles. Thanks for sharing.
Here are some thoughts that popped up in my head after reading your article.
- Banning cannot be a long-term solution for it can cause several negative second-order effects.
- If we go granular, then we can ask pointed questions. For instance, are the students texting each other while the teacher is teaching? Are there situations when this does not happen? For example, if the students are engaged in an activity or if the subject is interesting, are they still checking their phones. How many students display phone addiction and is there a pattern there?
Keeping the phone in a locker is again a forced solution. It is not perfect but maybe workable given the other options.
Ideally, students should have control over their phones rather than the phones having control over them. And this stems from self-control, which is a consequence of several other things that happen mostly at home depends upon how parents empower their children. But we do not live in an ideal world.
Perhaps, the orientation can begin at home and it will impact their behaviour at school and in other aspects of life. For instance, if the parents are continuously on their phones, consciously and subconsciously it sends out a message to the children that this is okay. And then it becomes their second nature.
Yash, if I could give this more than a like, I absolutely would—this is so well thought out, and I really appreciate you taking the time to articulate it!
I completely agree that the best-case scenario would be incentivizing kids to stay off their phones. I actually considered including that in the piece, but I felt it made the argument a bit too broad and less focused. Ideally, every subject would be engaging enough that students naturally put their phones away, but I have yet to see a curriculum or teaching model that can truly accomplish that.
For me, the core of the issue is this:
1) Most students in high school and younger simply aren’t mature enough to consistently resist distractions—not because of any fault of their own, but because they’re still developing.
2) Smartphones (or at least their apps) are intentionally designed to capture and hold attention.
When you combine those two factors, you get a situation where students—who are already vulnerable to distraction—have constant access to a tool specifically engineered to hijack their focus, all while trying to learn in an environment where sustained attention is crucial for success.
There’s no perfect fix, and there will always be loopholes and workarounds. But as you said, we have to try something—doing nothing will only put millions of students at an even greater disadvantage.
Well-written, covers several angles. Thanks for sharing.
Here are some thoughts that popped up in my head after reading your article.
- Banning cannot be a long-term solution for it can cause several negative second-order effects.
- If we go granular, then we can ask pointed questions. For instance, are the students texting each other while the teacher is teaching? Are there situations when this does not happen? For example, if the students are engaged in an activity or if the subject is interesting, are they still checking their phones. How many students display phone addiction and is there a pattern there?
Keeping the phone in a locker is again a forced solution. It is not perfect but maybe workable given the other options.
Ideally, students should have control over their phones rather than the phones having control over them. And this stems from self-control, which is a consequence of several other things that happen mostly at home depends upon how parents empower their children. But we do not live in an ideal world.
Perhaps, the orientation can begin at home and it will impact their behaviour at school and in other aspects of life. For instance, if the parents are continuously on their phones, consciously and subconsciously it sends out a message to the children that this is okay. And then it becomes their second nature.
Easier said than done. But we got to try.
Yash, if I could give this more than a like, I absolutely would—this is so well thought out, and I really appreciate you taking the time to articulate it!
I completely agree that the best-case scenario would be incentivizing kids to stay off their phones. I actually considered including that in the piece, but I felt it made the argument a bit too broad and less focused. Ideally, every subject would be engaging enough that students naturally put their phones away, but I have yet to see a curriculum or teaching model that can truly accomplish that.
For me, the core of the issue is this:
1) Most students in high school and younger simply aren’t mature enough to consistently resist distractions—not because of any fault of their own, but because they’re still developing.
2) Smartphones (or at least their apps) are intentionally designed to capture and hold attention.
When you combine those two factors, you get a situation where students—who are already vulnerable to distraction—have constant access to a tool specifically engineered to hijack their focus, all while trying to learn in an environment where sustained attention is crucial for success.
There’s no perfect fix, and there will always be loopholes and workarounds. But as you said, we have to try something—doing nothing will only put millions of students at an even greater disadvantage.