In the last two years, the trend of banning mobile phones in educational centers has spread. Even parent groups in Barcelona promote that instead of giving children a cell phone at age 12 (when they start ESO), as is done now in many cases, they do not have access until they are 16 years old.
The reasons for restricting the device are that it absorbs attention for hours and hours, which isolates the user from real life, from other activities, from verbal communication. Mobile phones are also blamed, among other things, for making it difficult to manage waiting or uncertainty and for fueling anxiety (although there are teenagers who say they see it as an escape or refuge).
The Californian organization Common Sense, which studies the impact of technology on minors, has analyzed that adolescents spend an average of at least 4.5 hours on their cell phones, although some, up to 16 hours a day! And they receive 237 daily notifications on their device, 23% during school hours.
The concern of families and teachers is justified. In educational centers the telephone is one of the biggest sources of problems and exhausts teachers. Many centers have been applying cell phone restriction policies for years, although there is great diversity and the trends of prohibiting or allowing it fluctuate depending on the years. Where it has been prohibited, there has been, in general, an increase in attention and performance in class, less cyberbullying, fewer videos of teachers, of fights between students, of stupid challenges, are recorded and posted.
It is good that there are spaces or times free of cell phones in the lives of minors (and adults). And it can be the classroom or the schoolyard. But there are experts who warn that banning cell phones at school is not the solution. Perhaps it is better to integrate it into certain activities or moments. Because, if the mobile phone (and screens, technology) is part of our lives, is it realistic to educate outside of it, to want an educational center like before it was invented? And isn't the educational framework the ideal one (although not the only one) to also teach how to use technology in a responsible, useful, and critical way?
Additionally, they should tune in to the performance at school and outside of it. Mobile-free school hours may reduce addiction, or they may cause all use to be concentrated at home, with its negative effects on family relationships and study and sleep hours.
