I’ve been a student at St. Luke’s since the sixth grade. In my time here, I’ve witnessed many changes in our cell phone policy. I’ve seen what makes students happy, what satisfies faculty, and what makes everybody go crazy. The current cell phone policy is simple: you can have your phone, just don’t use it in class, don’t use it when you’re walking in the hallways, and don’t film others without their consent. This policy seems to make our student body happy, but our faculty? Not so much. As I walk the halls, the phrase I hear the most is “Please put that phone away!” 

If I’m being honest, dodging people in the hallway as they zombie walk with their head in their phone is extremely annoying. It also bothers me when I receive a text from a friend complaining about how much work they have when they spent both of their two free periods scrolling on TikTok and aimlessly sending snapchats to people sitting two feet away from them.. 

Earlier this year, Greens Farms Academy’s upper school, a private school in Westport, CT, implemented a strict no-cell-phone policy aided by the use of Yondr pouches, small, neoprene pouches that fit cell phones and other wearable devices. Each upper school student at GFA was given a Yondr pouch at the beginning of the year. As students enter school at the start of the

day, their devices are placed and magnetically locked into their Yondr pouch, virtually impossible to open by hand. When students leave school, their Yondr pouches are opened by a staff member and they continue their day as normal. It’s safe to say that this initiative taken by GFA’s administration was a controversial step, but it was a necessary one given the hold technology has on us today. GFA’s website states that they made this decision to help students cultivate real relationships with one another, as they believe that “relationships are at the heart of the GFA experience.” I believe that GFA has it right, and currently SLS is suffering on the relationship front. We need to take action against the addicting pull of cell-phones, and Yondr pouches may be the way to do it.

Studies at schools all over the world have shown the healing power of banishing cell-phones from the classroom. In the US, specifically, many experts have voiced their opposition to the large presence of cell phones in schools. Associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical

school and associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of public health, Micheal Rich, believes that the distraction of devices in the classroom impedes student ability to actually absorb the information they’re being taught. “The human brain is incapable of thinking more than one thing at a time,” he explained,  “and so what we think of as multitasking is actually rapid-switch-tasking. And the problem with that is that switch-tasking may cover a lot of ground in terms of different subjects, but it doesn’t go deeply into any of them.” In sum, there is considerable evidence supporting cell phones’ corrosive nature on student understanding and learning 

Some believe that the removal of cell phones can help serve as an equalizer and aid in the prevention of comparison between students. In a study conducted by Sara Abrahamsson for the Norwegian School of Economics, Abrahamsson correlated an increased success rate of students with the removal of cell phones from their school environment, especially for  “students who are already struggling with academic grades or who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds.” As a teenage girl, I can say with certainty that one doesn’t need to see studies as proof that (especially among young girls) cell phones and social media serve as easy-access tools to compare yourself to another classmate. However, evidence is needed for a compelling argument. According to the American Psychological Association, 41% of teens with the highest social media use rated their overall mental health as poor or very poor, in comparison compared to the 23% figure reported by those in the lowest use category. They also reported that 10% in the highest use group expressed  suicidal intent and self harm tendencies and 17% expressed poor body image compared to the 5% and 6% of the lowest use group. We’re always told comparison is the thief of joy, so why are we enabling this joy (and attention) sucking tool to encroach on a space dedicated to learning? 

Finally, social media is designed to keep you using it for hours on end. Each time you set down your phone, you’re no longer receiving the short term dopamine rushes from your phone’s constant visual stimuli. Cell phones are a major time suck; phones decrease productivity and promote  procrastination. A report from 2019 by Common Sense Media, a non-profit that promotes healthy technology usage in children and adolescents, reported that the teens they surveyed spent an average of 7 hours and 22 minutes a day on their phones.

That number may have increased since that study was published, given the rise in popularity of various social media platforms, especially TikTok. To put it into perspective, that’s approximately 111 days spent on a cell phone – almost a third of a year. If cell phones were removed from school, imagine how much time would be saved and dedicated to (hopefully) more productive pursuits. 

Though I wholeheartedly believe that SLS should make a larger effort to combat its student body’s addiction to cell phones, I do see validity to some counter arguments. Unfortunately, in a country with frequent school shootings, school can be a scary place. Both parents and kids need to be able to communicate with one another in the case of an emergency. The good thing about being at a school like St. Luke’s, however, is that we’re provided with laptops and always have access to our school email. Additionally, there is a telephone in almost every room at the school – even without our cell phones, we’re pretty connected. Many also counter the assertion that cell phones inhibit the development of meaningful relationships with the fact that their original purpose was to help people connect. In their  study, research scientists Mesfin Awoke Bekalu, Rachel McCloud, and Vish Viswanath for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health confirmed that social media platforms help  those who need support beyond their “proximate environment”, and this is especially true for marginalized groups such as students of color and LGBTQ+ students. While this is an unfortunate reality for many students, we are fortunate to attend a school with many resources for both mental health and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Even if those resources weren’t enough, is it really necessary for a person to be connected to their online friends in an academic environment? 

Cell phones are not the encapsulation of all the evils of life. They place the world at our fingertips, and sometimes that can be a good thing. They begin to cause problems, however, when they occupy our thoughts every waking moment and prevent us from devoting our attention to our school work and in-person relationships. It’s likely that, without cell phones, (though it may be a difficult adjustment at first), the SLS student body would evolve emotionally in a myriad of ways, and the overall quality of learning would likely improve. So, if all of this is true, (as indicated by these studies conducted in Europe) why not take the leap?