I recently read an article in “the Atlantic” about a school that banned phones. It seemed almost utopic. People were more attentive, there wasn’t everyone sitting on their screens (including me) during lunch that you see at Parker, nor was there the sly texting and videogame playing during class. I want to see Parker adopt a similar rule that not only limits phone usage but technology use as a whole.

First: the problem. The problem isn’t just the level of attention in classes or at lunch, but also the effect that social media and technology use has in general has on mental health. Phones and social media have been shown to affect everything from rates of depression to the amount of attention a person has. While this is a primarily phone issue, technology, especially if it has access to social media, can also be a problem. 

So, what should Parker do? Well in Middle and Lower School there’s already a ban on phone use, and I believe that should be applied to high school, too. Students are not allowed to access their phones from the beginning of their first class to the end of their last. Already, some Upper School classes have a no phone even face down on your desk rule, my Spanish class for example, and I think it creates a more focused and present class. 

Additionally, the school should promote reduced use of other technologies. Computers are ubiquitous in high school, and necessarily so, but in many classes where teachers are relaxed about computer usage, many students abuse that privilege doing various, non-classwork, related activities. I certainly am one who is often doing something else when I have a computer open resulting in lessened attention during that class. But unlike phones, they are entirely necessary in a classroom and thus cannot be simply banned. And for people, like me, with really bad handwriting, they can be a lifesaver even for activities that can be done on paper, like notetaking. 

Computers are harder to regulate, however, I think that it can be done, and relatively simply at that. I think teachers, like in Middle School, can invite students to take out their computers when necessary for that class. This becomes more complicated when you consider students who prefer to take notes on a computer, and here I don’t have a solution. It could be that notes on paper are the default unless one approaches a given teacher to ask for permission, however that could become fraught if too much of the class asks for it, leading the teacher right back to where they started.

It’s also important to remember why Parker doesn’t have these policies already: because high schoolers are supposedly mature enough to responsibly use their technology. But I don’t think they are. Phones and certain apps on other devices, principally social media, are designed to be addictive. Trusting students to be able to regulate their technology usage, trusting them to regulate a product that is built to be addictive, is preposterous.

 Parker needs to act on technology use, whether it be through enacting something similar to what I proposed or something different. The classroom environment, the social environment, and the long term wellbeing of the student body are all, to some degree or another, at stake.