Over the past two decades, as technology has increased and new cell phones have been developed, ownership of such devices has become more widespread among teens. Although cell phones provide many conveniences to their users, there has been an increase in concerns regarding the negative effects of cell phone ownership and reliance.
Within schools specifically, teachers and administrators have voiced growing concerns about declining participation, hindered social skills, and overall lack of motivation and work ethic. Teachers have noticed that phones, although viewed as helpful by many students, are reducing attention rates and proving to be a larger distraction.
“A lot of times students will be in the middle of doing my work, but then they’ll get drawn away from notification on a smart watch or they’ll look down at their phone,” English teacher Michael Gawdzik said. “What ends up happening is, while it just looks like they check their phone and get back to work, what’s actually happening in their brains is they are having to reset and start from scratch to get back into that flow state of being able to focus on their work and do meaningful, thoughtful work.”
Gawdzik expresses his concerns about this emerging generation related to their cell phone use.
“I’ve talked to admin who are just super depressed by the state of the lunchroom, where everyone is just heads over their phones,” Gawdzik said. “There’s no interaction, which severely hinders students’ social emotional development. They kind of lose the ability to read facial cues or talk to people in public or talk to people face to face. Those are soft skills that are really important, no matter what a student decides to do after school.”
Although the state of Indiana banned cellphone use during instructional time within schools, each teacher has their own approach to enforcing such a law within their individual classrooms.
“Just keep it away,” Gawdzik said. “My policy is just whack a mole. If you see it out, put it away, it pops up.”
The Indiana phone law has been faced with controversy. Many students are against stricter regulations while some teachers feel an increase in management is needed.
“It’s headed in the right direction,” Gawdzik said. “I think the policy we have right now is ineffective, because it was inconsistently implemented. We as teachers saw nothing happening, so we kind of got disheartened. I think getting rid of phones completely from the beginning of school to the end of school, not allowed at all, would be ultimately the best thing for them.”
Many students do not share this sentiment.
“I think it can be inconvenient since there can be times where phones are beneficial in school, and this really undermines those times,” senior Lucy Kaiser said. “It is also quite aggressive when teachers email the deans, and think that teachers can have their own rules in their own classrooms.”
However, there is some acknowledgement of the potential benefits of stricter phone policies.
“I think it is beneficial since many students spend a lot of time on their phones that they could spend being more productive. It’ll be good for teachers because they won’t be having to redirect classes due to students being on their devices,” Kaiser said.
Overall the topic of cell phone use has become a polarizing topic within school buildings, placing pressure on both students and teachers regarding levels of usage and its effects.
“ I think everything in moderation,” Gawdzik said. “However, I think ultimately, smartphones are making everyone feel more alone, feel more helpless, more depressed, more anxious, which are not good things to feel.”
