“They’re incredible things - and that’s why they’re so dangerous.”
I’ve gone back to school for the day, and the principal is talking to me. It’s a familiar but nostalgic experience; the sixth form girls passing by seem almost exactly like me - just five years younger.
In 2019, I finished my 14 years of education in Northern Ireland, before moving away for the rest of my studies. I wonder, if I put a uniform on, I would be able to blend in here. But half a decade (and a whole pandemic) later, a lot has changed - about myself, certainly, but also about the school environment.
My attention is captured by my phone lighting up on the desk. It’s a distracting reminder of the reason I’m spending time at the Co Down school, which has allowed me to ask them about mobile phones and whether the new guidelines announced by education minister Paul Givan will make a difference. They’ve let me find out more on condition that I don’t name the school - itself an indication of how contentious the issue of rules around pupils and phone use has become.
Read more: Mobile phone use by pupils in schools should be restricted, says Paul Givan
The principal tells me that he welcomes Mr Givan’s new policy for phone-free schools. It will, he says, give this generation of young people “an opportunity to experience a six-hour period each day when they don’t have mobile phones”.
I share with him that, honestly, when I was a teenager I would probably have had a rather hostile reaction to a teacher confiscating my phone or telling me whether I could or couldn’t use it.
This, of course, is why the new guidelines to curb access to mobiles in schools have proven so divisive.
Covid precipitated an acceleration in a change of attitude towards technology. Just as adults quickly embraced the world of Zoom meetings, sharing documents and working from home, pupils also had to adapt to remote learning. Phones, as well as laptops and iPads, became essential tools for studying as well as communicating.
Read more: The problem with children and phones runs much deeper than schools – Chris Donnelly
Now that everyone is back in the classroom, the principal says that separating pupils from phones is viewed as “almost an infringement on your basic human rights”.
“If you’re in an area where there are a lot of schools and if you go out and try something different, you can draw a lot of heat,” he says. Breaking the mould can be hard, so departmental backing on firm phone policies grants a layer of security to schools wishing to beef up their approach.
He stresses that it’s not just a case of “taking away” a phone that a pupil feels attached to; there’s ‘giving’ too: “You could actually be giving them a very rich, natural, social experience every day.”
If you’re in an area where there are a lot of schools and if you go out and try something different, you can draw a lot of heat
— Co Down principal
The principal fully accepts that pupils should be able to have phones as they travel to and from school. Indeed, parents as well as children have come to expect this.
Read more: New guidance on mobile phone use in schools is a welcome move
His issue is with the other ways phones can be used the rest of the time, particularly social media apps: “If a child needs to file their nails,” he explains, you would give them a nail file. But by giving them constant access to a smartphone when a basic ‘brick’ phone could do the job, “what we’re doing is giving them a big Swiss army knife, with a corkscrew and scissors and a couple of sharp ends”.
Read more: Technology Secretary says firms must ‘bake’ safety at centre of new products
Mr Givan has allocated £250,000 to trial lockable pouches for 10 schools, the idea being that students can safely lock their phones away for the day. Spending public money in this way when budgets are so tight hasn’t been met with universal approval; justice minister Naomi Long has wondered why phones’ ‘off’ switches aren’t good enough, especially when they are free.
“You could say, ‘Could you not spend that money on something else?’,” says the principal, who believes Mr Givan is making a radical proposal in response to a complex issue: “Well, you could always say that… in the absence of any action it would just be a chronic problem.”
Of course, the purpose of school is to prepare you for the rest of your life. But that’s the very reason restrictions on phones are a problem, Lauren Bond, a sixth former at another school, tells me.
“I’m of the opinion that it was my first real lesson of self-control when I had my phone on me on for in first year,” she says.
“It was about learning that I couldn’t just take my phone out in the middle of class and respond to someone.
“A lot of the heavy lifting with school is done at home, doing homework and revision - having that coping mechanism... I know that it can be around me, but I know how to act properly around it.”
Lauren is the president of the Secondary Students’ Union of Northern Ireland. Now completing her A-Levels, she achieved 10 A* in her GCSEs and insists that her mobile phone was - and remains - a huge part of her revision.
“That’s how my brain best absorbs knowledge,” she says. “Obviously, you can type a lot faster than you can write, and I find even typing out my history essays again and again really helps it go into my head. And so it’s a vital learning tool for me and it’s something that I respond to really well.”
Read more: Schools which ban rather than discuss is last thing pupils need
Lauren accepts that “different people learn in different ways”. “That’s why I think this guidance is quite concerning because it doesn’t recognise that education isn’t one-size-fits-all. So many young people actually use these digital resources that are on their phones.”
Throughout this flurry of interviews and conversations, I’m conscious of the vibration in my jacket pocket. I’m definitely distracted.
Read more: Letter: DUP’s Paul Givan is doing the right thing on mobile phones in schools
But on my way back, I tell my editor that I’m nearly at the office. I reply to a few emails that help take the pressure off my afternoon. I even catch the chance to reach out to someone who I know is having an especially hard day.
The education minister’s guidance is quite concerning because it doesn’t recognise that education isn’t one-size-fits-all. So many young people actually use these digital resources that are on their phones
— Lauren Bond
It is difficult to dismiss how valuable and useful smartphones are. But it is also difficult to get the balance right between the helpful and the harmful, and it is hard to imagine life without them.
Right now, having just finished university overseas, being able to keep in touch with my very recent past helps ground me in my currently overwhelming present. Last year, when I was struggling with my physical health a lot, I could simply pick up my phone… and suddenly an empty hospital room seemed significantly fuller and friendlier.
My phone keeps me connected, and for that reason, I’m reluctant to say that it’s ever posed a threat to my mental health, when it’s actually on occasions achieved the contrary.
Read more: Children ‘doom scrolling’ on phones for hours a day causing widespread harm – MP
There are times where I harbour a slight resentment to the technological era I grew up in. The journalists I’m working with have all mastered shorthand (a novel skill that the writers of my generation are nearly completely ignorant to). Here, I actively read the paper here every morning instead of my usual mindless consumption of the (notoriously unreliable) sources from my Instagram reels.
Read more: X accused of ‘lack of care’ for women and girls over blocking feature change
As someone just starting their career, for me, journalism has re-affirmed that there’s something about humanity and face-to-face interactions that cannot be replaced or replicated by a phone (and I hope it never will).
This is the duality of mobiles in practice – and whether they serve (or sever) my work and concentration is something I should (and will) monitor and work on.
