By Jack Ballard
Teenagers in the United States and across the world have a phone problem. In 2023, more than 50% of teens in the U.S. spent 4 hours a day or more on social media, per Gallup. That’s more than half of a school day! It’s common sense that phones, and especially social media, are distractions for America’s teenagers, especially in school. Understandably, many see phone bans in schools as the solution. In the short term, bans work — but they lead to students who have no idea how to exercise self-control with their phones. For that reason, blanket bans are not the best solution for phones in high schools.
I don’t deny that phone bans have significant advantages. Especially for younger students, like those in elementary and middle school, having phones out of the classroom has huge benefits. In high school, however, banning phones is a harder decision.
I graduated from high school in May, and I saw firsthand what school was like with and without a district-wide cell phone ban.
Before we had a phone policy, students could keep their phones in their pockets all day. Most teachers would confiscate phones if they were misused, so phones typically stayed out of sight. Then, our school board enacted a new district-wide phone policy.
The policy, enacted before my junior year, directed teachers to confiscate phones at the beginning of class and return them to students at the end. Students had their phones during passing periods, lunch, and unscheduled hours — but not in class. This policy applied everywhere across the school, from freshman-level art classes to the most rigorous courses.
To the board’s credit, the system helped. Students were generally more focused and social during class. However, the policy had a problem. When students would retrieve their phones at the end of every class, chatter would instantly cease, and almost every student ended up with their nose buried in their screens — watching TikTok, responding to texts or Snapchat messages, completely zoned out. This revealed the real problem. Phone bans may suppress symptoms, but they don’t address the cause: the epidemic of phone addiction.
