Banning phones doesn't work because students still get notifications and crave the apps. Schools need digital guardrails plus education that teaches students to manage devices responsibly, like how public health moved from abstinence-only to skills-based sex ed and substance-use programs.
Just pent up over the course of the day.
Yep. And so the one app that the teacher wanted them to open for the academic purpose is lost in that swirl, that rebound consumption of other notifications. And so locking phones away or pretending they don't exist is not really the solution here. It's how do we have more consistent guardrails on things while also having the education around it. And I think that's a huge thing that's missing right now is that when you teach, treat something that, treat something as that it's scary or shouldn't be accessed. We're just pushing it to the side and we're not educating around it. And I'm just folding this all into my public health experience. When you think about substance use, sex education and mental health, those are all things that initially started out as abstinence based or just say no or pretend it doesn't exist. And now schools have adopted them around education models so that when faced with these bigger decisions or choices that they need to make or situations in the future, that students are equipped with the skills and knowledge in their toolbox in order to make the right choice. And cell phones are now getting pushed into that equation. And most specifically around social media apps and gaming applic.
