Why Are Schools Saying "No" To Phones Now? 5 Benefits For Kids & Teens

Dr. Tartt discusses the research by Dr. Jonathan Haidt about why banning cell phones in school is all good for our youth according the research.

Dr. Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and NYU professor, has become one of the most prominent voices raising alarm about the harms of smartphones and social media — especially in schools. His most recent book, “The Anxious Generation” (2024), compiles years of global research and provides some of the strongest evidence for removing smartphones from children’s daily environments, especially schools.

Haidt’s Research-Backed Findings on the Benefits of Removing Smartphones in Schools

1. Improved Mental Health Outcomes

• Haidt’s research links the rise of anxiety, depression, and self-harm in adolescents — especially girls — directly to the introduction of smartphones and social media during the early 2010s.

• He notes that rates of teenage depression doubled between 2010 and 2020 in the U.S., closely tracking with smartphone adoption.

• Removing phones during the school day helps protect the brain from overstimulation, giving students a chance to emotionally reset.

Key Benefit: Less exposure to online drama, bullying, and social comparison reduces psychological distress and improves emotional stability during school hours.

2. Reclaimed Attention and Cognitive Focus

• Haidt explains that smartphones train children’s brains for distraction, not focus.

• When schools enforce phone-free environments, students experience:

  • Longer attention spans

  • Improved classroom engagement

  • Better academic performance (as supported by parallel research from Beland & Murphy, 2016)

Key Benefit: Students begin to rebuild focus, attention regulation, and executive functioning — all of which are impaired by constant screen exposure.

3. Better Social Development and Human Connection

• Haidt shows that as smartphones rose, in-person socialization among teens plummeted — they stopped hanging out, dating, and even getting driver's licenses.

• Phones became a substitute for connection, not a supplement.

• Schools that remove phones see:

  • More conversation at lunch

  • Improved peer relationships

  • Better interpersonal skills and empathy

Key Benefit: Phone-free schools restore human connection, encouraging eye contact, empathy, and emotional intelligence — crucial skills for adulthood.

4. Reduced Sleep Disruption and Cognitive Fatigue

• Haidt highlights how nighttime phone use wrecks adolescent sleep, which directly impacts school performance, mood, and resilience.

• By reducing phone use during the day, students are less addicted and less likely to binge at night.

• Phone bans create natural boundaries that help kids sleep more and stress less.

Key Benefit: Indirectly improves sleep hygiene and brain function by reducing dependency and dopamine seeking throughout the day.

5. Long-Term Developmental Protection

• Haidt uses the analogy: “We handed children a slot machine and called it progress.”

• By keeping smartphones out of schools, we’re safeguarding their neurological and emotional development during the most vulnerable years.

• His overall conclusion: the earlier and more consistently we delay smartphone immersion, the better long-term outcomes we see — socially, academically, and emotionally.

  
  

Haidt’s 4 Recommendations (“The Anxious Generation”)

1. No smartphones before high school

2. No social media before age 16

3. Phone-free schools

4. More independence, free play, and real-world exploration