Cell phone usage is distracting students from learning. Students are too worried about their phones and can’t focus on the class and what is going on in front of them. The cell phone has taken control of a part of our brain where we end up feeling uneasy without it, and this uneasiness has caused a disruption between human communication, and has interrupted students’ learning at school. 

During numerous occasions in school,  I’ve seen classmates around me on their phone texting, Snapchatting people, or changing their music at a time like notes, during a presentation, or going over homework. Students are too invested in their phones and don’t pay attention to their surroundings. 

The School of Communication Studies at Ohio University conducted a study and had students take notes with their phones away, without paying attention to it, and some with their phones out, paying attention to it. The studies show that the students without their phone wrote down 62 percent more notes than the students who were on their phones. The students without their phones also understood more on the exams and tested a whole letter and a half higher than the students who had their phones. 

Technology as a whole isn’t the issue. It’s the communicative need to talk and be with others at times you can’t. The unnecessary anxiety of missing something or weak self control can cause students to get distracted during a class they’re not fond of or are doing well in. I believe there are solutions to the problem but it will only work if both teachers and students are willing to do so. 

A strategy most teachers approach is the phone wall where you put your phone in a little plastic slot and not grab it until the block is finished. I do believe that this helps but a lot of students refuse to be away from their phones. 

Another way is creating a cell phone agreement plan; students, parents and teachers can give opinions on how the policy should stand in the school.

How long could you last without your phone? According to a 2022 article from verywellfamily.com, teens in Australia took a survey and over 50% saying they are worried about not knowing what their friends are doing. Cell phones have caused mental loads on students. Could students last long enough to obtain information easier but ease their cell phone addiction? Cell phone usage in school is something that needs to be monitored for all students’ mental, educational, and physical sake.