Talk to anyone in the Latin community, and they will tell you that screen addiction plagues our school. What’s Latin’s solution? Pretending that the problem doesn’t exist from 8 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. each day. Banning cell phones at Latin, while intended to address the overreliance on technology and growing disconnect between students, instead sidesteps the growing problem of cell phone addiction by focusing on a shortsighted fix, leaving students stranded with no framework to manage their phone use.
Latin’s administration is absolutely correct that cell phone addiction plagues the Latin community, and even most of the United States: A CDC report found that 50.4% of American teenagers spend at least four hours on their phone outside of school hours—an alarming number, to say the least. Excessive screen time has been linked to a variety of mental health problems in teenagers, including depression and anxiety, so it stands to reason that something must be done to address the growing epidemic of screen overuse.
However, banning cell phones during school hours turns a blind eye to the real problem of cell phone addiction. Since most teenagers grow up without any formal education on healthy technology habits, it makes perfect sense that they struggle with using it in moderation. The real problem is not that students use their phones too much, but that students received no guidance on how to moderate their phone usage—in school or elsewhere—in the first place.
In what world should we cut straight to taking away everyone’s phones without making an effort to attack the core issue? And no, the half-baked phone prison solution doesn’t count, since it was rarely enforced and never paired with significant educational programming. Had last year’s ban on phones in classrooms been legitimately implemented, then an extension might be logical, but how can the school fairly evaluate it when everyone disregarded it?
Even now with a total ban, in my experience, students are still using their phones, albeit in a more concealed fashion. This covert usage is evidence enough that Latin has not done enough to teach students how to use their phones in a more balanced manner: Students are so addicted that they would rather risk punishment than avoid checking their phones. The only chance that Latin has to have a lasting impact on phone addiction is through education, given that the ban doesn’t affect students outside of school hours. So far, the school has chosen to neglect this opportunity.
Aside from cell phones being an educational distraction, one of the main reasons Latin chose to implement the ban was to encourage more in-person social interactions. But if fostering offline connections is the goal, why not ban computers, too? If students are missing their phones, they will simply use their computers instead. Latin has even made it a point to require each student to have a computer to attend classes. What’s so different between the two, where computers are a learning necessity and phones are an utter academic detriment?
Before Latin’s ban of mini-computers, students could check their schedules quickly and avoid memorizing Latin’s complex eight-day cycle. They could communicate with friends to hang out and study together. And during an emergency, they could text and receive important messages from their parents. But now, these legitimate uses have been disregarded with no clear replacement.
Moreover, the ban goes against the very thesis of a liberal arts school, which is to teach students how to think instead of what to think. As of now, the school has not given students a framework—an essential part of a liberal arts education—in which to mindfully consider their phone usage; instead, Latin has essentially told students that phones are bad in all cases. Latin prides itself on having smart, adaptable students. Why is this issue so formidable that the school must abandon its liberal arts principles in favor of an authoritative, Band-Aid solution?
If students were taught how to properly approach phone addiction instead of just being told not to use their phones, they would have the appropriate knowledge to put an end to screen dependence. That’s why, when I think of the phone ban, all I can think of is a missed opportunity.
However, Latin doesn’t have to miss it. The school can implement schoolwide educational programming during gatherings or advisory time, focusing on proper cell phone usage. Latin should re-evaluate and perhaps re-implement phone bans within classrooms. But most importantly, Latin must not hang its students out to dry without any idea of how to use their phones in moderation.
