Just before the end of the school year, a group called Well Wired began a campaign that aims to get local schools to reconsider how they use technology in classrooms. During the last school board meeting of the year, Bend-La Pine Schools parents expressed concerns about the amount of time their young children were spending on school-issued tablets and shared stories about how kids were able to access questionable content on those devices.When it comes to technology and social media, we are watching an experiment unfold in real time. Health experts are careful to say that at this point in history, we don’t yet know what children who are born into a world of tablets and phones and other devices, and who use them a greater part of the day, will be like as adults.
But it’s an experiment that is already amassing a lot of data — and from that data we can already glean that this experiment is not going to end well. Sure, there is the research that shows that social media can help some people find meaningful connections in a way they may not otherwise find in person. However, most of the information being gathered points to a dark period for school-age children.
Schools, of course, are using digital tools at least in part to help kids keep pace with progress and prepare them for the world of work, where technology comes into play across many industries.
On the other hand, there’s a growing mountain of evidence of the harm that comes with the proliferation of technology.
In an analysis of 33 studies, published in November in the journal, Early Education and Development, “negative impacts were witnessed in some studies with how screen time influences the brain function required for attention, executive control abilities, inhibitory control, cognitive processes, and functional connectivity. Other studies suggested that “higher screen time is associated with lower functional connectivity in brain areas related to language and cognitive control, potentially adversely affecting cognitive development.” Last year, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory about the effects of social media on youth mental health.
In both of these instances, the experts involved did not dismiss technology and social media out of pocket — but both did suggest that policymakers have a role to play in enforcing limits and “promoting programs which support positive brain development.”
Fortunately for us here in Bend and Central Oregon, we already have examples of how this can be done. In Los Angeles, the new school year will come with a new ban on cell phone use at the second-largest school district in the U.S. The governors of both California and New York are considering a statewide ban during school hours. And here in our own legislature, lawmakers plan to take up the issue during the next legislative session. We don’t yet know what effects these bans will have on things like teen mental health overall, but certainly, removing the temptation of that internet dopamine hit all day at school could help kids stay focused on learning.
Naturally, this is going to come with pushback. Teens, habituated to glancing at screens every few minutes, will likely, during this initial period of withdrawal, be among the loudest to protest. Some who fear that they won’t be able to reach their kids during school hours — or call them during an emergency — may have valid concerns… though we’d argue that it’s an issue easily solved by calling the kid to the school office to field a call, just like generations of families did before.
As we’ve seen with things like tobacco, sometimes the only thing to do to solve a problem as large as the one we are currently seeing among our youth is to regulate it. In this case, regulation around the use of phones and other electronics in schools seems like the sanest thing we can do in the interest of creating the best learning environment possible for kids. With so many examples of how larger districts — and states — are tackling this, we’ll look forward to what our local and state policymakers come up with.
This article appears in Source Weekly July 18, 2024.
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Thank you for this article. It takes a village to raise awareness around this issue.
When we moved to Bend six years ago, this was a huge concern of mine but we could not afford to send our three children to private schools where there were no iPads pushed into their hands.
We came from schools where tech giants were sending their kids to “Zero Technology” schools because they knew the implications of these devices and how this would impact their children’s learning, mental health and diminish their creativity. All of the companies such as Facebook, Apple, Goggle etc. have whistle blowers outlining how they created these devices, applications and social media platforms and how they were paid to make people stay on their devices. A great documentary about this is “The Social Deliema”.
The school we came from believed in zero tech for elementary and middle school grade students and when they moved to technology in 9th-12th grades it would be learning to build a computer before going on one to understand what they are using. It also involved learning how to properly type on a computer and coding as part of the process. There were never iPads, just computers. You can give a two year old a device and they will figure it out in no time, I have seen this in the grocery store and I think this is child abuse. I am an early childhood educator and you should be talking to your children, singing, and engaging with them in creative play time and being in nature. They should not be on any devices including TV. Before TV, there were very limited cases of ADD, now termed ADHD as well as Autistic Spectrum Disorders. This technology rewires and changes the brain. With all this technology there is a price to pay when put in the hands of children. There is enough data out there proving the devastating affects so why even put this in our children’s hands?
Bend La Pine Schools pushed out this shiny new technology without knowing what the implications would be to our children’s brain development or their social emotional/mental wellbeing. It’s time to stop and get back to basics.
I would like to see them go back to books and handwriting including cursive and reading books, not iPads. There is no reason for these iPads to be used as a primary tool in the classroom and cell phones should be banned period. Children don’t want to read books anymore because they are on devices and devices are addictive, generate instant gratification and thus diminishes their levels of creativity, curiosity and ability to stay focused.
I have been actively advocating for this for six years through conversations with BLPS, letters, comments, meetings etc. and I would like to see some action. My children are now in high school and the damage has been done, but moving forward I would like to see change for all of the children in our community. If we know better now, do better BLPS’s.