The Detrimental Distraction: Students are unable to focus in school due to phone use

“Phones in the box.”

Before class, social studies teacher Robert Bickers waited for his IB History of the Americas students to put their phones in the colorful, wooden “phone” boxes that sit on each table of his classroom, each box playing a unique tune when opened and alerting him of any unregulated phone use.

Bickers started implementing his phone boxes five years ago when he noticed it became an autonomous reaction for students to reach for their phone and scroll through Instagram during a minuscule moment of silence.

“Social media is more entertaining than I am,” Bickers said. “Even students who really want to pay attention and are engaged or interested, there’s always this pull of what’s happening online.”

At the beginning of this school year, he got rid of the boxes to test if students could stay off their phones on their own accord. They got through one quarter until he had to bring them back due to unrelenting phone use. Senior Ava Cooper blames herself for the boxes’ return.

“I really like his class, but it’s my first hour so I’m so tired. My head is bobbing and I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, stay awake, stay awake,’” Cooper said. “The only thing that can keep me up is if I’m looking at something [on social media], not just listening to notes.”

Cooper struggles to resist the urge to get on her phone and reply to a Snapchat or comment on an Instagram post when she’s bored. She attributes this habit to the fact that she’s had Instagram since she was 7 years old.

But with years of practice, Cooper has started to improve on pulling herself away from the screen. Instead of an hour and a half of scrolling before she realizes it, it’s more like five minutes before she catches herself and gets back to her HOTA homework.

“I make jokes and people make jokes that I’m a ‘screenager’ and I’m always on my phone,” Cooper said. “And yes, I am, but at the end of the day, I don’t let it affect my work.”

Though social media doesn’t directly affect Cooper’s grades, business teacher Mallory Dittemore believes it has a negative impact on learning. While Dittemore attempts to keep her students engaged with talking breaks and class discussions, she’s noticed a drastic increase in screen time and students inability to pay attention since her time as a student teacher two years ago.

“More than anything, learning has been impacted [by social media] because a lot of times now, it’s not based on what you’re going to learn today,” Dittemore said. “It’s ‘What do I have to do and how can I get it done quickly so that I can go back to my phone and social media?’”

Dittemore got Snapchat when she was an eighth grader and Instagram when she was a freshman in high school. Even though she’s not a teenager anymore, she understands the pull of social media. Instagram makes her aware of a former classmate having a baby or getting married and Snapchat is a fun way to send photos to friends. 

In fact, she has both a personal and professional Instagram account, the latter geared toward promoting her cross country and softball teams.

“Kids get a lot more recognition now,” Dittemore said. “Without social media, nobody across the district or even the school would know if somebody had a really great baseball game.”

Junior Collin Ford created an account on Twitter five years ago, but only used it rarely. Now, he uses it as much as Snapchat or Instagram. He finds Twitter content more amusing than Snapchat and watches fight and car crash videos daily. But just like Cooper, he doesn’t let his enjoyment get the better of him. He stays focused in school and only opens Twitter if he has free time. 

“Maybe if I’m at home I’ll get a little bit distracted, just because I’m at home,” Ford said. “But in school I’m mentally more at school than I am on my phone.”

Though Ford is always ready to watch the next biggest fight video on Twitter, he also learns about different perspectives from non-violent arguments that take place on the app. And though Cooper is constantly on her social media apps during class time, her Instagram explore page gives her inspiration for her newspaper designs.

“There’s a lot of good that is created and a lot of bad that’s facilitated,” Bickers said. “Like any other medium, it’s in and of itself. It’s just a thing. You can use a shovel for good, you can use a shovel for bad. Social media is the same. It ultimately comes down to our ethics and our morals. And that’s a really big gray area.”