Should Schools Ban Phones?

Jacqueline Nesi evaluates the evidence related to phone-free schools

Intro from Zach Rausch and Jon Haidt:

There is a pleasure in finding convergence among researchers, especially among those who sometimes or often disagree. In today’s post, we re-publish an important new essay by Jacqueline (Jackie) Nesi, a Clinical Psychologist and Professor at Brown University. Nesi is an important scholar in the field because she weighs the potential benefits and risks of smartphones and social media in a clear and fair manner. She sees more benefits for children and adolescents than we do, so you might want to read her to get a different perspective. She writes an excellent Substack, Techno Sapiens, where she delves into the latest research and offers valuable insights for parents. 

As schools across the country consider going phone-free next year (from bell to bell, not just during class), it’s important that they base their decisions on the best available data and the most accurate interpretation of the findings. We, of course, have been making the case for phone-free policies for a while. We made the case in The Anxious Generation, in The Atlantic, and in an open-source collaborative review Google Doc. In this post, Nesi, after a thorough review of the literature, concludes that the evidence supporting phone-free schools is strong enough to start taking action. 

If you want your school or your kids' school to go phone-free, check out our most recent post by Mileva Repasky for a step-by-step guide co-created by The Phone Free Schools Movement and Fairplay to make it happen. 

We hope you will subscribe to Nesi’s Substack and check out her review of The Anxious Generation.

— Zach and Jon

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“Schools should ensure that classroom learning and social time are phone-free experiences.”  

— U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy

“Cell phone use in schools has gotten out of control. It's gotten to the point that students don't talk face to face, but instead text one another when they're sitting right next to each other! …research tells us what we already know: excessive cell phone use impacts students' mental health and academic performance. It's time to update our policy [to ban cell phones] and make it a district-wide responsibility."  

— Jackie Goldberg, Los Angeles Unified School District Board President

“It’s 2024 – and all families rely on cell phones to stay connected and communicate now more than ever…parents want to be able to have clear and open channels of communication with their own children. Banning cell phones outright in school or treating them like contraband instead of using effective classroom management is entirely unreasonable and not grounded in the reality we will live in.” 

— Keri Rodrigues, President of the National Parents Union 

It’s back-to-school season, and you know what that means! We’re talking about school cell phone bans.

Should schools ban phones outright? Are there other options? Is there any research on this? 

This is a big topic, so I cover it in two parts. In this post, I discuss the research on phone bans. In the second post, I talk about specific policies, and how schools can implement them.

So, please, grab a seat, put away your cell phone (in your backpack, out of sight, for the duration of this period), and let’s get to it! 

Wait, what’s going on?

Since the advent of cell phones, schools have been grappling with how to handle them, but the movement to remove phones from schools has accelerated over the past year.

This is now happening at nearly all levels: states are passing or calling for “phone ban” legislation. Districts, including the Los Angeles Unified School District (the largest public school district in the U.S.) are implementing new rules. And of course, individual schools are grappling with what to do.

Though much of the discussion has focused on seemingly straightforward “phone bans,” there is actually a range of policies under consideration. This includes everything from requiring students to keep phones at home or in their lockers, to banning smartphones but not “dumb” phones, to allowing teachers to make their own classroom rules. (Note: see my next post on specific policy options).

Why would schools want to “ban” phones?

There are a few reasons.

The primary one is interference with learning. In a 2023 nationally-representative survey of public K-12 teachers, 33% of teachers said students being distracted by their phones was a “major problem” in their classroom. Among high school teachers, that number was 72%. Among K-12 parents, 49% worry that phones interfere with students’ learning.

Another reason is social. There is concern that the use of phones during the school day will both interfere with in-person social interactions, and also create more opportunities for cyberbullying and online “drama.” Among K-12 parents, 57% are concerned about cyberbullying.

A final reason is student mental health. In light of increasing rates of youth mental health concerns in recent years, schools are hoping that a phone ban may help reverse the trend.

Schools have other goals with phone bans, of course, but these are the main ones: boosting academic achievement (and test scores), decreasing cyberbullying, increasing in-person social interactions, and improving mental health.

Now, the question is: do they work?

To the research!

There are two types of studies that are relevant here: (1) studies that look at the effects of smartphones on outcomes we care about (learning, socializing, etc.), and (2) studies that directly examine what happens when schools put new phone policies in place. We’ll take each of these in turn.

Effects of smartphones

Let’s cut to the chase: smartphones are distracting. They can distract us from what we’re doing in the moment, whether that’s schoolwork or a conversation with the person next to us. I’m not sure we need research to tell us this, but just in case, we have it. 

Research finds an association between greater phone use and lower educational achievement. When studies compare students with and without phones in classroom settings, those without phones generally show:

• Better academic performance

• Higher attention on class material

• Better memory for information learned

• Greater mindfulness and lower feelings of nervousness during class

In one study, researchers randomly assigned some college students to turn off their phones and put them face down on a desk, and others to leave their phones outside of the room. The mere presence of phones (even turned off, face down) resulted in lower performance on an attention test.

Socially, we have evidence that smartphones can both distract us during face-to-face interactions and reduce the likelihood that we engage in in-person interactions in the first place, reducing the benefits we might otherwise get from social interactions. This means potentially lower feelings of social connection and worse mood. When one student uses a phone, it affects other students, too. If your neighbor is on their device, they’re not open to conversation and it can distract from your learning, too.

Finally, in terms of the role of smartphones in mental health: I’ve written about this issue many times before. To very briefly summarize, we do not have definitive evidence that smartphones are causing rising rates of mental health concerns. We also do not have definitive evidence proving this theory wrong. Smartphones are certainly one factor that can play a role in teens’ mental health, but there are many other factors that are likely equally (or more) important.

Effects of phone policies

Now, what do we know about the effects of actual school policies? What happens when schools ban phones?

Here, we have a few studies that examine the effects of school or district phone policy changes on student outcomes. The evidence is a bit mixed, but generally points toward positive effects of limiting phone use on academic achievement (and maybe decreased bullying). At least four studies are worth considering here:

A study in England looked at how student test scores changed after the institution of phone bans (defined as schools banning phones from school premises or taking them away at the beginning of the day). Schools with phone bans saw small, but significant, improvements in test scores, with effects driven by larger improvement for lower-achieving students. This is important, because it means that phone bans may be particularly helpful for students struggling academically.

Other studies examined the impact of introducing new cell phone policies at the regional level (in Spain) and school level (in Norway), but it’s worth noting that these studies don’t actually look at phone bans. 

• The Spain study found improvements in middle schoolers’ PISA scores and lower rates of bullying in one region (Galicia) after a new policy went into place banning phones for “personal use” (but still allowing for academic purposes in the classroom). 

• The Norway study lumped together a range of high school phone policies, from banning phones altogether to simply putting them on silent mode during class. They found that implementing any of these policies led to very small improvements in bullying and GPA—but for girls only, and especially among those of lower socioeconomic backgrounds. There was little evidence of effects on mental health (measured by trips to mental health care providers).

In contrast, a study in Sweden finds that the introduction of phone bans at the school level had no impact on ninth graders’ academic achievement. The authors suggest that this may be because Sweden has had a long tradition of integrating educational technology in the classroom, and thus schools may already have developed effective strategies to manage phone use (so a ban would make little difference). 

Limiting phone use makes sense…

Taking the evidence together, in general, I believe schools should limit phone use during the school day as much as possible.

Phones can distract from academic work and interrupt in-person social interactions, and the evidence suggests limiting phone use can result in overall positive outcomes, especially for lower-achieving students (albeit with small effects).

Of course, an argument can also be made for the use of phones to stimulate academic engagement in class (e.g., through interactive apps or educational tools), and to facilitate socialization (e.g., texting friends to meet up during lunch). This certainly could work in a highly-controlled setting, and some schools may find success with this approach. But in my opinion, these possibilities typically do not outweigh the downsides—especially when schools have other technology (computers, Chromebooks) available, and other systems in place to encourage a positive social climate.

…but the details matter

Now, how does this translate into specific policies? That is less clear. To me, this is a question of implementation. The details matter.

A school that allows students to use phones during the day for specific purposes (educational tools in class, brief checks in the hallways) might do great if the policy is clearly enforced, teachers feel supported in doing so, and students and parents are on board.

A school that bans phones entirely during the school day (by choice or state mandate) might struggle if teachers are spending overwhelming time and resources trying to enforce it.

And there are, of course, many instances in between.

Phone bans won’t fix everything

Finally, it’s worth remembering that these policies are not a panacea. This is especially true when it comes to mental health.

It’s absolutely possible that limiting phone distractions and creating space for more in-person socializing will positively influence students’ relationships, academic achievement, and even mood, and that this could have long-term impacts on mental health. I certainly hope so! But many other school-related factors are also related to mental health—school safety, access to psychological services, sense of belonging to a community, and reduced achievement pressure (to name a few).

Bottom line: If we want students talking to each other during lunch, or paying attention during class, we need policies that ensure their phones are not distracting them during those times. But if we’re pinning our hopes for solving the mental health crisis on phone bans, we’re going to be disappointed.