Smartphones in Schools: Much to Lose and Little to Gain
After considering a great deal of research and data that confirms our lived experience, FCA’s stance on smartphones in schools is, There is much to be lost, and little to be gained. Due to the unique risks they pose and valuable experiences they block, we have concluded smartphones are incompatible with the type of learning environment we are trying to cultivate. Furthermore, they undermine the development of the experiences, qualities, and skills we want our students to have. When families send their children to FCA, they are entrusting us with the care of the most important part of their lives. We take that responsibility very seriously, and just as loving parents make decisions based on the child’s best interest (rather than choosing the path of least resistance), we must also take this approach.
Out of Sight…Still in Mind: Attention Blockers Left In Lockers
Despite teachers’ doing their best to make learning interesting and engaging, the fact is many of the tasks involved in education are tedious and require deliberate focus and concentration to complete. In a world with unlimited stimulation and choice, it is becoming increasingly difficult for students to attend to the demands of school. According to the team of researchers behind the app Brainscape, in 2004 the average person had a 2.5 minute attention span, where in 2024 it was only .67 minutes. Some suggest the onus is on teachers to constantly adjust and tailor their lessons to shortened attention spans, but to what end? Consider that even TikTok videos, with the content customized to the user’s preferences, rarely exceed 34 seconds as users find videos over a minute long “too stressful”. Learning and applying new information is hard. Concentrating on boring tasks is difficult. Our brains’ natural response is to escape these situations in favour of something more instantly gratifying, which is the specialty of smartphones. Simply having a smartphone in close proximity creates the urge to reach for it, not to mention they constantly make bids for attention with visual and auditory notifications. It requires a great deal of discipline and focus, which are both finite resources, to resist the pull toward these devices when having them is an option. In a 2018 experiment, as reported in Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’ s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity, students were divided into three groups before writing a test that measured intelligence and cognitive capacity: one group wrote the test with their phones out on the desks, the second group with their smartphones in their backpacks but in the room, and the third group with the phones left in another room. The greater the distance between student and smartphone, the better the overall performance of the group. It turns out simply asking students to keep smartphones out of sight isn’t as effective as making them inaccessible, which is why at FCA we have student phones locked away for the day. Rather than burdening our students with the task of resisting their smartphones, we can simply remove this distraction for them. Of course they will eventually need to regulate their learning environment themselves, but we believe it’s best to give their prefrontal cortex more time to develop before they are tasked with this responsibility.
Roll Back
In her essay, “A Time We Never Knew”, Freya India describes the sense of nostalgia and longing her generation, Gen X, feels for a time before smartphones saturated every area of life, especially schools. YouTube videos of school in the late 90’s have millions of views, and the comments section under the videos is revealing: “No filters, not staged, not edited with cringy music, no people staring at their phones. Natural beauty.” Another user comments, “As someone who graduated in 2015 this looks like such a nice time. Not a phone in sight, people actually talking face-to-face, I wish I could have grew [grown] up in an era like this.” India explains it’s not so much about missing a time gone by; it’s longing for a carefree time they never knew. While she acknowledges that all was not perfect before smartphones and every generation has its challenges, she concludes:
We have to remember what has been lost. When we are grieving record stores, mixtapes, old-school romance, and friends goofing around in ‘90s high schools, what are we actually grieving? Delayed gratification. Deeper connection. Play and have fun. Risk and thrill. Life with less obsessive self-scrutiny. These are things we can reclaim—if we remember what they are worth and roll back the phone-based world that degraded them.
While reducing smartphone presence in schools will not solve this problem completely, we believe schools have an important part to play in this “roll back”.
Present in Body and Mind
According to American Time Use Survey, the time people who are fifteen to twenty-four-years old spend in-person with friends has been in steady decline since 2005, with the most dramatic decrease happening between 2018 and 2020 (prior to any Covid restrictions or lockdowns). The importance of social skills and other lessons gleaned from in-person interactions has not diminished, so making the most of face-to-face socialization takes on new importance in light of this trend. We want our students to be skilled in the art of conversation: to catch what is implied rather than explicitly stated, to recognize the difference between exasperated and irritated without the clarification of an emoji, to enjoy good, witty banter. Learning the nuance and flow of conversation is a complex skill that requires practice in order to be proficient. Alison Brooks, who studies the psychology of conversation and emotion, explains: “Face-to-face communication is difficult and depleting. You have to simultaneously pay attention to what the other person is saying, monitor his facial expressions and body language, try to perceive his emotional expressions, all while monitoring yourself and what you’re trying to say and convey back”. A typical school day provides many opportunities for students to practice this communication, and we want our students to make the most of these learning experiences and improve their competency in this area.
School Belonging: Obligated to Do Better
At FCA, we are a community, and in order for our students to see themselves as valuable members of this community, they need to both benefit from, and contribute to, the sense of belonging we have here. In showing up every day and choosing to be present, the community as a whole benefits as much as each individual. Withdrawing into a smartphone in the company of others communicates indifference or disinterest, and on some level it prioritizes the user’s own gratification or need to be entertained over the connection needs of others. As a society, we have grown accustomed to showing up when it is convenient and pleasant for us. Our shortened attention spans have little patience for small talk: Why participate in a conversation if it doesn’t serve some self-interest or entertain us in some way? We exit chats when they get to be too much, unfollow people who no longer entertain us with quality content, unfriend at will, and in general tailor many of our interactions to our individual interests and preferences. It can be uncomfortable to stay in connection with someone who disagrees with and challenges you, but this discomfort is an opportunity to understand a new perspective, to build empathy, to realize that it is possible to have a relationship with someone who doesn't see the world the same way you do. Smartphones have facilitated an unhealthy shift to self-preoccupation. Consider that in 2006, Time Magazine’s Person of The Year was “You”. At FCA, our message to students is the opposite: your life is not all about you. While self-care and boundaries are important components of well-being, these practices do not absolve us of our responsibility to others. Our person of the year, every year, is Jesus, and when we look to his example and instructions for living, we learn the Christian life is ultimately one of deference and servanthood, where the needs of others are the primary consideration. In Mark 12:31, we are instructed, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13 reminds us of our obligation to others: "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." By choosing to show up for others rather than retreating into smartphones, our students will foster and benefit from a greater sense of community. As Robert Putnam, a political scientist at Harvard university, explains, “We have to choose to be obligated to each other at a higher level than we are right now.” We must create an environment where this care for others is modeled, encouraged, and ultimately expected.
We recognize that enforcing these ideals will bring practical challenges, but believe not enforcing them will come at a greater cost. We cannot sacrifice what is best for the future for what is convenient now. Families having to communicate through the office or classroom teacher is inconvenient, but our students’ distraction, disconnection, and social skills deficit will also be “inconvenient”, and in a more profound manner.
