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From burner phones to decks of cards: NYC teens adjusting to the smartphone ban

(gothamist.com)
279 points geox | 5 comments | 11 Sep 25 13:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.04s | source
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trentnix ◴[11 Sep 25 14:08 UTC] No.45211888[source]▶
Texas banned phones in schools as well. A local school administrator told me “in the high school, the lunch room is now loud with talking and laughter!”

There are still parents that complain. Turns out they are as addicted to texting with their kids all day as their kids are addicted to the same.

Regardless, it’s great to see that the ban has seemingly nudged things in a healthier direction. Its a failure of leadership that schools needed a statewide ban to make such an obviously positive change.

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RyanOD ◴[11 Sep 25 18:01 UTC] No.45214354[source]▶
Yes, parents are definitely part of the problem here. I am a former teacher and my wife is an active teacher so we've seen this first hand.

Though not entirely to blame, parenting is certainly a part of the cell phone addiction problem. Setting time limits and holding kids accountable for breaking rules around phone use would go a long way toward guiding kids toward more healthy behaviors and letting them know someone cares about their well-being.

Modeling constrained phone use is another aspect. Parents will struggle to get their kids off their phones if they are spending all their own free time scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.

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sjw987 ◴[12 Sep 25 09:47 UTC] No.45220458[source]▶
This is it. You rarely see a grown adult making the decision to cut down their own screen time (including on the phone), so there's next-to-no chance they do anything for their kids.

Most people seem to be in a mass trance with smartphone usage. Everywhere I go, the majority of people I see at any given moment are on their phone. It's spooky. I don't look forward to the inevitable mental health crisis we're going to hit when generations who have always lived with a smartphone hit mid-life.

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dpassens ◴[12 Sep 25 11:05 UTC] No.45220884[source]▶
There's no need to wait, just look at the current mental health crisis.
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4ggr0 ◴[12 Sep 25 13:04 UTC] No.45221686[source]▶
it's a bit disingenuous to assign this solely or primarily to smartphone usage. lots of reason for todays teens to be depressed etc., maybe smartphone-usage is a symptom, not the root-cause.
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1. reaperducer ◴[12 Sep 25 15:29 UTC] No.45223208[source]▶
it's a bit disingenuous to assign this solely or primarily to smartphone usage.

He didn't. You're the one that brought "solely" into the conversation.

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2. 4ggr0 ◴[12 Sep 25 16:47 UTC] No.45224045[source]▶
yeah, my interpretation went too far, but even just attributing The Mental Health Crisis to smartphone usage, as if this really was a significant core-reason, is not right to me.

"Teens are sad because they spend all their time on their phones", then maybe ask yourselves why teens flee to their virtual spaces. (maybe look at what seems important to them and is at the same time being dismissed and ignored by the people older than them, while being told not to be idealistic and naive.)

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3. dpassens ◴[12 Sep 25 19:19 UTC] No.45225627[source]▶
As a barely former teen, what awaits in those virtual spaces is both worse than the dismissal and arguably feeds the naïveté causing said dismissal.
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4. 4ggr0 ◴[12 Sep 25 19:32 UTC] No.45225772{3}[source]▶
i'm not saying that it's healthy or good that teens flee into virtual spaces. i just think the mental health crisis isn't caused by smartphones - the problem is whatever is making them flee there.
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5. dpassens ◴[12 Sep 25 20:37 UTC] No.45226478{4}[source]▶
The data seems to indicate that specifically social media is the cause. Take a look at some of the articles at https://www.afterbabel.com/t/the-international-mental-health... where the whole topic is discussed in more detail than fits in this comment box.