It\u2019s easy to believe that cellphones are just tools. Tools are for our convenience, like a screwdriver for a clogged drain or a pressure gauge for wonky driving. Whatever their benefits, cellphones can no longer be classified as such for all the ways that they so deeply inconvenience us. Many have experienced some sort of phone-related inconvenience: someone running into you while glued to their device, anxiously waiting for the ticket inspector because your phone is about to die, or most insidiously, the collapse of valuable social customs.<\/p>\n
Each individual practice of these customs had just a small positive effect, but now that they are slipping away, our culture is changing for the worse. The diminished attention spans, the social ineptitude, and the phantom phone signals<\/a> are not just bugs of technology, but the reality that we need to address.\u00a0<\/p>\n At least, Governor Kathy Hochul thinks so. In announcing her statewide phone ban, Governor Hochul said<\/a> that \u201cyoung people succeed when they\u2019re learning and growing, not clicking and scrolling.\u201d I spoke to local teachers to see if they really find this to be the case.<\/p>\n The question of the role technology ought to play in our lives is a polarizing one. Among teachers however, there seems to be a consensus that phone usage has adversely altered their classrooms. Lauren Norkus, an Ithaca High School teacher, said that a couple years before the ban she would tell students, \u201cI just want you to turn and talk to your neighbors about anything at all. Just don”t gather by the door and stare at your phones. And inevitably, that’s what they would do, because they didn’t know how to do anything else.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Teachers are beginning to see differences post-ban. Cait Rejman, a Southern Cayuga High School teacher, sees it in her study hall: \u201cLast year, every kid was just sitting on their phone. Now, they talk to each other, and that’s something that I didn’t realize was missing until this year, now that they’re forced to interact face-to-face.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The greatest pushback to cellphone bans has been the parent coalition<\/a>. Their most salient argument is that they must have access to their children during an emergency. While this concern is sympathetic, many emergency response experts<\/a> contend that cellphone use is to the detriment of emergency procedures. Ithaca Teachers\u2019 Association president Kathryn Cernera agrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLast spring, we were meeting a lot of resistance on this phone ban from caregiver groups talking about school safety,\u201d Cernera said. \u201cIt was actually the police unions and the public service unions that handle emergencies coming forward and saying that \u2018in a worst case scenario, every student getting on their cell phone would make our jobs harder,\u2019 that got this ban over the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n Another reason that parents oppose blanket bans is because they are accustomed to having unrestricted access to their children. Now that our culture makes it possible for parents to check in on their kids at all hours of the day, many relish in the comfort of constant communication. But for every parent who used their access line to find the pick-up spot with ease, there is another placing inordinate domestic responsibilities on their child. The ubiquity of phones has eliminated the possibility of adolescents getting a break from their family lives in school. Perhaps with blanket bans, that may change.<\/p>\n Why weren\u2019t districts regulating phones before Hochul\u2019s ban? It\u2019s not as easy as it sounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSchools have tried to take it on themselves. But what always became the real sticking point was consistency of expectation,\u201d Cernera said. \u201cA lot of our students have their friends from dance, friends from soccer that don’t all go to the same school. So when every school has the same expectation, that pressure to join the group chat isn’t there.\u201d<\/p>\n Some argue that in our rapidly technifying world, they must prepare<\/a> their students to use their devices effectively. But for today\u2019s students, technology is their first language. \u201cThey’re still all very tech savvy, so I think they\u2019ll be fine communicating in a world that is so tech-based,\u201d said Rejman.\u00a0<\/p>\n