Cellphones — the good, the bad and the addictive

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/08/2024 (435 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When we moved to Canada as newcomers, the high cost of cellphone contracts shocked us. The lack of competition left us with few options. Eventually, my U.S. contract ended. I lived without a cellphone for years. My husband kept a U.S. phone number and 15 years later, still pays by the minute because it’s cheaper. I felt the joy of occasionally being ‘unreachable’ but felt pressured to get a new phone by a world that expects all adults to have one.

When my twins reached Grade 1, my mother insisted I get a new phone for emergencies. I hardly use it but have been tied to a monthly bill ever since. As my kids began junior high and Grade 7, more than one teacher seemed surprised to hear they didn’t have their own phones. Most kids at their Winnipeg school division junior high have cellphones.

At first, this phone-free choice seemed obvious. The expense of handing twins phones didn’t seem to be part of the budget.

There’s also a lot of research indicating that adolescents don’t benefit from increased screen time or owning a cellphone. Yet, their classmates had phones. Increasingly, teachers alternately seemed to expect it as another tool to use in the classroom or complain about it as a constant distraction. Even our extended U.S. family joined in, with grandparents handing us old phones and suggesting they ‘might’ cover the costs.

We resisted. We’ve read the research. We didn’t want to affect our kids’ mental health, exercise or well-being just because of the lure of cellphones.

This is occasionally inconvenient, like when we can’t locate one 13-year-old after school. However, we hear daily how classmates lose their phones, give them to friends, or shut them off. Depending on a mobile phone as a location device only works if your kid actually holds onto it and keeps it on.

Instead, we encourage problem-solving: my kid may make a phone call in the school office or figure out how to meet someone without a phone. When we hear complaints, we Gen X parents suggest “going old school!” Back in the Stone Age, when we were kids, we set a meeting time in advance. We showed up to meet friends without using phones. We used actual landlines in case of emergency. It all worked fine. This low-tech game plan seems to shock younger parents or teachers with whom we interact.

While a cellphone at school is helpful in case of emergency, it shouldn’t be required or even necessary. All signs seem to indicate that kids learn better without phones and with fewer screen hours.

The recent decision by the Manitoban francophone school system to limit screen time and phone usage is completely in line with research findings and good leadership. Whatever Manitoba decides this week about school cellphone use, its approach thus far has simply pushed the hard decisions downstream. It leads school superintendents, teachers and finally parents to be the ‘bad guys’ instead.

Let’s face it — everything about cellphone apps and new technology can be seductive. It’s designed to give us addictive pleasure. It’s easy for kids to get into online spaces that might cause harm. Parental controls only go so far. Kids (and adults) have a hard time setting good boundaries.

Some parents depend on screens and technology as babysitters while those with lower income must skip them due to the cost. It creates unfair divides in the classroom between the cell phone ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’ That doesn’t make for good group dynamics or good learning.

As a parent, I’d love to see kids who are capable and dependable enough to meet up with their classmates without always needing a phone. As a former educator, I’ve read research that indicates reducing phone usage, screen time and avoiding time-sucking activities like showing movies at school would all help boost basic skill acquisition and literacy rates.

Finally, as our society becomes ever more dependent on cellphones, if the province thinks every kid should use cellphones in school despite the research findings, then the government should do something about cellphone service costs.

These additional costs are prohibitive for many Manitobans. Encouraging cellphone dependence then creates a two-tiered educational system that lowers academic success rates for everyone. Those with cellphones can ‘succeed’ in school activities that rely on device usage, but those with cellphones show poorer concentration and mental health than those students without cell access. Either way, this lack of leadership around regulating school cell phone usage doesn’t boost educational outcomes in Manitoba for anybody.

Joanne Seiff is a Winnipeg author, former teacher and mother of twins.