As a middle school teacher, Dana Ramos didn’t restrict cell phone use in the classroom. Now, as principal of Lowell Elementary School, a K-8 school in Phoenix, Ramos has adopted guidelines to limit access to the devices during the school day.

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Ramos has been an educator for 11 years, working first as a teacher and then as an administrator. She has witnessed the integration of technology into the classroom and seen the whole gamut with phone use.

“I’ve seen technology and cell phone usage be something that actually was really beneficial,” Ramos said. “Students who didn’t have a computer could go on Google on their phone and have access to homework assignments. I’ve seen it be useful with different kinds of projects where you might be using photos, or you might be using videos or taking audio.”

“On the other side … the cell phone is a distraction,” she continued. Students talk with others, take photos and videos, and scroll through social media, “all while they should be paying attention to the lesson in class.”

A 2023 Common Sense Media report found that 97% of students ages 11 to 17 used their phones during the school day. Over 50% of their usage was on social media platforms, including YouTube, distracting from lessons and other educational activities.

Across Arizona, school districts are limiting or outright banning phone use during the school day in an effort to curb distractions. An added perk could be reducing negative mental health outcomes tied to social media use on phones.

The influence of social media

The explosion of social media has not only heightened distractions in the classroom but also amplified the insecurities that young people may have.

“Middle school and high school kids are in the thick of comparing themselves to others developmentally,” said Katey McPherson, a Chandler-based youth mental health advocate and educator. “But then you’ve got, now, this added layer of comparison, where you’ve got this lens into your friendship group and classmates and strangers and celebrities and musicians.”

In a 2022 Digital Wellness Lab survey of adolescents ages 13-17, 46% of respondents said that social media use worsened their body image.

“Middle school is a time in your life where you’re very sensitive to how people view you and you’re trying to work out for yourself, ‘Who am I? What do I want to look like?’” Ramos said. “The normal anxieties that kids have at this age are amplified by social media because you have the filters and all these different ways that you can distort pictures so they make you look a certain way.”

In May, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released an advisory about the effect of social media on youth mental health, stating that more needs to be done to minimize the harmful effects and maximize the positive effects. Murthy went further in a New York Times op-ed, calling for warning labels on social media platforms about the potential dangers to young people’s mental health.

McPherson warned that it is difficult to blame social media alone as the cause behind mental health outcomes, though certain effects, such as fights and headaches, can be traced to phone use.

“A lot of the stomach aches and headaches that kids, especially in junior high, report have to do with stuff that’s happening on the phone: getting into conflict, being excluded, (breaking) up with someone, people being jerks to you,” she said. “A lot of things are going on on those phones that are driving kids to go to the front office. … Visits are psychosomatic.”

Social media has benefits, too, and McPherson emphasized that it shouldn’t be “demonized.”

“It’s such a powerful tool for them to market themselves, to become entrepreneurs, to connect, to be recruited for sports and other activities,” she said.

Connectedness is one of the top reasons people use social media. According to the 2022 survey, almost 80% of participants reported feeling socially connected through social media. But, Ramos warned, that connectedness can be a curse.

“The things that happen at school, kind of the school chatter, almost follow kids home now,” she said.

Mesa Public Schools filed a lawsuit against Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and other social media companies in 2023, claiming harm to youth mental health. Several other school districts in Arizona have joined the lawsuit or are considering litigation.

The enforcement problem

An issue with preventing students from using a cell phone in the classroom is enforcement. Lowell Elementary School’s handbook requires students’ phones to be off and in their backpacks during the school day, and teachers are empowered to take steps to reduce phone distractions.

“For students, their cell phone feels very personal to them,” Ramos said. “Teachers are put in a position where they’re trying to honor the student and give them what they need in order for them to be successful and at the same time, be a person that enforces boundaries in the learning space.”

Some teachers’ frustrations with phone use have prompted them to leave education. In May, a high school biology teacher went viral for quitting his job at Sahuaro High School in Tucson, citing students’ phone addiction.

“A lot of teachers are leaving the profession for various reasons, and phones are a piece of that,” McPherson said. “They’re tired of having to battle, and they’re tired of trying to teach.”

To combat phone use in the classroom, McPherson said administrators need to put their feet down.

“They need to get brave,” she said. “It’s so long overdue.”

Efforts in the Legislature to address the issue have failed. In April, Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed House Bill 2793, which aimed to limit students’ accessto the internet, social media and wireless communication devices. She argued that many schools are already addressing the issue and that statewide legislation is “unnecessary.”

State Superintendent Tom Horne called the veto “irrational” in a statement to Cronkite News, urging parents to pressure school districts to ban phone use.

How parents can help limit cell phone use in the classroom

Parents play a critical role in reducing screen time both at home and in the classroom.

Ramos said that while some parents may want a lifeline to their child in an emergency, they fail to realize that just having a cell phone in the classroom is a distraction.

“I don’t think parents think about what it means to have those tools in the learning space and how they can serve to actually be a really big distraction to learning,” she said.

McPherson noted that kids pick up on their parents’ device behavior and recommended parents be role models.

“The single best predictor of how your child will use their device is how they see you using their device,” McPherson said.