The Impact of the Phone Policy
This year at Juab High School a new Phone Policy has been put into place. Students must arrive at class, sign in using their new ID cards, and place their phone up in the holder hanging from the wall. This new policy works well on keeping students active and engaged during classes, but what about the other consequences of this policy? Procrastination, addiction, and mental disorders are all examples of what can make this policy go wrong.
As students all put up their phones the second they walk into class, we are learning so much more. There isn’t a vibration in our pocket or a sound notifying that someone or something is trying to reach out and capture our attention. However, even though our brains are taking in more information and we are understanding our classes better, as soon as we get home we immediately reach for our phones. Since we’ve been missing out all day on what’s happening online, we want to spend our free time informing ourselves on everything we’ve missed in the last 6 hours. Because we are doing this we are putting off our homework and our studies until there’s barely enough time for them. Of course since we’ve paid more attention in our classes we know (most of the time) exactly what we need to do and how to do it, so we wait and wait and wait until the very latest we can do the assignment, but by then there is very little time to get the work of almost 10 classes done.
On top of the procrastination situation, many of today’s students are addicted to their phones. One study found 83% of teens use a phone daily, with an addiction rate of 37%, meaning an average of 7-9 hours is spent on a screen per day. If the math is done correctly from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm students are at school, then most addicted students are on their phones from 3:00 pm all the way to anywhere between 10:00-12:00 pm. As teenagers it is extremely important that we get enough sleep, meaning 8-9 hours of sleep per night, but if students are falling asleep at around 12:30-1:00 am, then not only is their mental health going to decrease, but their physical well being too. There are many healthier ways to keep students off of their phones besides keeping it from them. However it is easy to see how this phone policy could work. Maybe in hopes it will make kids less addicted, and realize they can go longer without having to have their phone with them constantly.
The final reason that this phone policy could have some serious problems is with mental disorders, in specific anxiety. Studies show that 31.9% of high school students have an anxiety disorder. In some cases a phone can act as a coping mechanism, you know you can have direct contact and communication with someone you feel safe with. Anxiety attacks are increasingly common amongst teens, and most attacks are silent and hard to notice by teachers and classmates. Having a phone and being able to send help to a parent or guardian makes a student’s life increasingly easier.
Though the phone policy is quite helpful for the teachers and supervisors of this school, it can bring up problems amongst students and their health. With procrastination levels rising, addictions increasing, and anxiety having been an increasing concern in our society, should they look over this phone policy?
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