A recently published study looks at the role that ADULTS play in their children’s phone use.
In this post, I want to outline the study’s findings, and then consider their broader implications for schools and teachers.
The Study
In this recent study, led by Jason Nagata, researchers studied survey data from over 10,000 (yes, ten THOUSAND) adolescents. They looked for connections between “media parenting practices” and adolescent behavior.
So: if the family use cellphones at the dinner table, does that practice have an effect on — say — problems with school work.
Because we’re asking so many questions from so many people (10,000!), the researchers find A LOT of associations. (By the way, because these are survey data, we might be skeptical about the answers we get.)
Rather than go through each finding, I’ll highlight just a few:
- An increase in cellphone usage at meals correlates with an increase in “problematic” social media behavior…
- …and “problematic” video game behavior.
- Ditto: an increase in cellphone usage in the child’s bedroom.
- When parents reward or punish by allowing/restricting media usage, this practice correlates with increase in “problematic” video game usage.
This list could go on (and include dozens of caveats), but those headlines captured my attention.
In brief: if we’re worried about perils of technology usage, the cellphone might not be the best place to focus our efforts. Instead, the parents might be a good place to focus.
The Bigger Picture
Of course, this blog doesn’t focus on parenting. This study, instead, promted me to consider other questions:
Because the “should we ban cellphones in schools” debate runs so hot, it resists a nuanced conversation.
I want to use this study to approach that debate from a slightly different angle.
As I read the case for banning cellphones, it typically includes the phrase “kids these days.” Sometimes directly, often indirectly, the argument implies that students themselves deserve the blame for their cellphone use.
I want to argue against that implication, for two reasons. (And then one more reason.)
First: for the most part, students do not buy themselves cellphones. Adults buy children cellphones. And we buy them the carrier plans and tchotchkes that go with them.
In other words, the public lament often sounds to me like this:
“How strange and terrible that children use the objects we bought them!”
If we don’t want our children to use an object, we don’t have to make them available.
(I understand that there’s a safety argument: “children need phones in case of emergency.” I also understand there are MANY ways to allow for emergency communication without smartphones. I’m looking at you, flip phone.)
This study described above helpfully highlights this point. If adults conjure up a problem, we should not turn around and criticize children for participating in it.
Resisting Temptation
The first reason not to blame children: adults probably bought them the smartphones.
The second reason not to blame children: everyone involved in the smartphone industry makes them as tempting as possible.
For instance: if I create video games for a living, I’m not bothered that children play my game during their classes — I’m DELIGHTED.
Presumably that kind of obsessive devotion means that the game will go, or has gone, viral.
Presumably I’ll get rich.
Heck, I might even reach the pinnacle of social success; I could become an influencer.
To expand on the point made above, the public lament often sounds to me like this:
“How strange and terrible that children use the objects that an entire industry of experts has made as tempting and enjoyable as possible!”
If we don’t want our children to use a super fun object, we don’t have to make them available. *
And One More
I wrote above that we’ve got at least two reasons to spend less time blaming children for their cellphone use. I’d like to add one further reason.
(I should say: I am, at this moment, skating out on VERY thin ice. I hope you won’t be too upset with me.)
I’ve spent the last 12 years of my life leading PD workshops for teachers: workshops about cognitive science research, and the uses of that research in day-to-day teaching.
I have A LOT of anecdotal data about teachers in groups.
My biggest concern during these sessions is NOT “resistent behavior.” I almost never have grumpy teachers tell me to get off their lawn. Teachers typically react with great enthusiasm when they get to talk about a cog-sci approach to teaching.
My biggest challenge is: cellphones.
Many teachers simply won’t put them down.
Many school administrators simply won’t put them down.
Honestly: a PD talk sometimes feels like that screen-obsessed scene from WALL-E.
Here’s my point: it strikes me as arresting for teachers to be so angry at students for doing precisely what we’re doing.
To expand (once again) on the point made above, the public lament often sounds to me like this:
“How strange and terrible that students use their phones in the same way that we teachers do!”
If we don’t want our students to use smart phones, we should model the restraint we expect.
More important: the DIFFICULTY we have modeling that restraint holds up an unwelcome mirror. Every time I send a text during a faculty meeting, I should acknowledge my participation in the very cultural habit that I decry.
Solution, Please?
You might reasonably ask me: “if everything you’ve written is true, what should my school do about smartphones?”
That’s an entirely reasonable question. I have a tentative answer, and a confident answer.
Tentatively:
I see almost no upside to studets’ having and using phones during class; I see LOTS of downsides.
For that reason, I think that in most cases, schools should do everything they reasonably can to limit or prevent cellphones from being out during class.
I suspect — but don’t know — that most schools would benefit from a substantial ban on cellphone use during the day on campus. Students will talk with each other more if they’re texting each other less.
Confidently:
I think a school’s cellphone policy should include teachers’/adults’ cellphone use as well.
Of course: a school’s relationship with a teacher differs from its relationship with a student. But: teachers’ cellphone usage can absolutely undermine our authority to insist on students’ abstinence.
The phone is a mirror. It both communicates with others, and shows us more about ourselves. We ought to look into that discomforting mirror.
* Important note: I made this entire argument without using the word “addicted.” As I’ve written elsewhere, we cannot currently claim that “cellphones are addictive.” That’s a lively research-based debate, not a settled conclusion.
Nagata, J. M., Paul, A., Yen, F., Smith-Russack, Z., Shao, I. Y., Al-Shoaibi, A. A., … & Baker, F. C. (2024). Associations between media parenting practices and early adolescent screen use. Pediatric Research, 1-8.
