What are your thoughts on cell phones? In today’s age, they are a huge part of people’s lives. Cell phones are a very great tool for communication, organization, and access to information. Cell phones have many positive benefits and they can really help you out. Still, with all these pros, there are a lot of bad sides to phones. Having them in school can affect many kids’ learning environments. Ways they can be a problem in schools is because of distraction, cheating, cyberbullying, social comparison, and safety.
The first reason phones should not be allowed in schools is because of distraction. Cell phones can be a huge distraction. With all the new information we are pounding into our brains daily, distraction can really mess with our brains and make it so we are not focused. The stuff we see on our phones, such as social media, can really draw our attention away from school.
The second reason phones should not be allowed in school is because of cheating. You cannot go through school cheating your way through. You will get nowhere in life. There are many different apps and websites on phones that make it really easy to cheat on assignments and tests. Everyone wants to have a good grade, and a lot of times cheating can be really tempting, especially when your phone is right there with you in school.
My third reason is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is real. Cell phones can easily draw bullying and harassment among students. Having your phone out between classes you can easily bully others through these electronics.
The fourth reason why phones should not be allowed in school is because of social comparison. Many kids and teens can easily get into the comparison trap. Social media can really trigger this. It can lower people’s self esteem and confidence tremendously. It is unhealthy for people to feel comparisons and competition against each other.
My last reason why phones should be banned from schools is because of addiction. Phones are very dangerous because kids can become less productive and more lazy from staring at your phone too much. It is unhealthy. At a younger age, kids and teens need to be able to feel ok without their phone with them all the time. I think that by banning phones from school it will give students the chance to find things they enjoy rather than just sitting on their phone.
For these reasons, I think it would be wise to ban cell phones in schools. True, cell phones have many pros and are a great technology source, but they still have a lot of risks. Having them in school will affect kids’ learning environments.
– by B. Albrecht (11th) Panguitch
Read more about phones as a resource in Should Cell Phones Be Banned in Schools? No. by M. Burns.