Student cell phone use in classrooms diverts attention, undermines education

Sympathetically, I told my students last week that the use of cell phones wasn’t allowed in my classes. When I became a professor (of journalism) in 1978, cellphones were certainly not an issue. But these days, youngsters are, I’d say, more attached to their cellphones than any other object (exceeded only perhaps for those of driving age, their cars). And there is obsessive use of them.

I expressed sympathy as classes started for the 2025 semester because cell phones have in recent years become a necessity in functioning in what has been dubbed the “digital society.” It’s not the students’ fault they’ve gotten hooked.

On the syllabi in my classes, I’m more brash about cellphones. Indeed, in capital letters, I write:

“SMARTPHONES AND SIMILAR ELECTRONIC DEVICES, BECAUSE THEY DIVERT A STUDENT’S ATTENTION, ARE NOT TO BE USED DURING CLASS. PLEASE PUT YOUR SMARTPHONE OR SIMILAR DEVICES AWAY AND FORGET ABOUT TEXTING OR CHECKING EMAIL DURING CLASS.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul deserves congratulations for her initiative begun last month to limit the use of cell phones by students from kindergarten through the 12th grade. 

“Young people succeed in the classroom when they’re learning and growing — not clicking and scrolling,” Hochul said. “My upcoming budget proposal will put forth a new statewide standard for distraction-free learning in schools across our state.” 

She added that restricting cellphone use might make her “very unpopular.”

Hitting the bullseye when it comes to cellphone usage is Dr. Nicholas Kardaras of Sag Harbor. He is an expert on addiction, a clinical professor at Stony Brook University and author of an important and edifying book, Glow Kids, with the subtitle: “How Screen Addition Is Hijacking Our Kids—and How to Break the Trance.”

First published in 2016, the book begins with justifiable praise. 

Dr. Howard J. Schaffer, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Division of Addiction at Cambridge Health Alliance, says: “Kardaras reminds us that technology can insidiously and unpredictably turn against us. Glow Kids is a paradigm-shifting, mind-bending account of excess and tragedy that should serve as a clarion call to rethink our ever evolving relationship with advanced technology.”

A child psychiatrist, Dr. Victoria Dunkley, writes:“Glow Kids uncovers the various players—both the obvious and not so obvious—contributing to the growing problem of tech addiction and screen-related mental health issues. With the rigor of an investigative journalist and the insight of an addiction specialist, Kardaras manages to make a complex and uncomfortable topic both palatable and accessible. A highly recommended book.”

In the book’s Introduction, Kardaras writes: “Unfortunately, it seems that we, as a society, have entered into a Faustian deal. Yes, we have these amazing handheld marvels of the digital age—tablets and smartphones—miraculously glowing devices that connect people throughout the globe and can literally access the sum of all human knowledge in the palm of our hand.”

“But what is the price of all this future tech? The psyche and soul of an entire generation,” he continues. “The sad truth is that for the oh-so-satisfying ease, comfort and titillation of these jewels of the modern age, we’ve unwittingly thrown an entire generation under the virtual bus.”

“C’mon—aren’t you being a bit dramatic? you might ask. But look around you. Look at any restaurant that has families with kids; look at any place where kids and teens hang out—pizzerias, schoolyards, friends’ houses—what do you see? The head-down, glassy-eyed zombification of kids whose faces are illuminated by glowing screens,” he declares.

He details “a growing mountain of evidence showing that there can be some very significant negative clinical and neurological effect on Glow Kids.” 

“Brain-imaging research is showing” that the effects “are as stimulating to the brain’s pleasure center and as able to increase levels of dopamine (the primary feel-good neurotransmitter) as much as sex does. This brain-orgasm effect is what makes screens so addictive for adults, but even more so for children with still-developing brains that just aren’t equipped to handle that level of stimulation.”

“What’s more,” Kardaras writes, “an ever-increasing amount of clinic research correlates screen tech with psychiatric disorders like ADHD, addiction, anxiety. Depression and even psychosis. Perhaps most shocking of all, recent brain-imaging studies conclusively show that excessive screen exposure can neurologically damage a young person’s developing brain in the same way that cocaine addiction can.”

“That’s right—a kid’s brain on tech looks like a brain on drugs,” states Kardaras. 

“The Solution” is the title of his final chapter.

The “absolute first step is a tech fast (otherwise known as digital detox),” he writes. He adds, “It is also critically important that kids who are digitally detoxing not just sit around and twiddle their thumbs. They need to get busy with new fun things to do; they have to replace the old addictive screen behavior with something new. Maybe the child reconnects with a sport he or she used to play—or a musical instrument. Maybe the child journals the entire experience or gets involved in some other creative project, like painting a mural or writing music. Perhaps the child gets involved in some volunteer work. But new hobbies must be found, or old passions need to be rekindled.”

“The other key is that kids connect with other people. This is critical,” he says.

Kardaras gave a presentation last month at Pierson Middle and High School in Sag Harbor sponsored by the local chapter of the “Wait Until 8th,” a nationwide campaign in which parents pledge to wait until their children are at least at the end of the eighth grade before giving them cellphones.

It is with sympathy that I tell my students the use of cellphones is out in my classes —  what with these devices having become so much part of modern-day lives. 

The other day I stopped at a newfangled seafood restaurant in East Moriches, “Loco Lobster,” because of a banner waving next to it touting lo mein. At the counter to order takeout, I was met with a printed offer saying, “Buy 1 Get 1.” That involved using my cellphone to scan the QR code on the offer and additional cellphone machinations including a “verification” with a password. Quite a difference from when I was a kid in New York walking to Chinatown and plunking down 50 cents in coins for a bowl of lo mein.

Even parking one’s car these days isn’t a matter of nickels of quarters but increasingly having to install a “parking app” on a cellphone.

Cellphones in the 21st Century—ubiquitous and too needed. It is thus difficult, I think, for students to understand why using one while in class is problematic. As one student explained to me last week: “I’m from the 21st Century.”

I appreciate that, but adjustments are needed.