Reflecting on the Phone Ban

Prompt: What is your opinion on the phone ban and how has it changed since September? How have your habits (in relation to schoolwork, time management, etc.) and/or daily routine changed?

“Although students aren’t distracted by their phones in class as much, it is hard to get work done at school without access to personal laptops. This causes a larger workload after school, which, when piled onto extracurriculars, leads to staying up very late and not getting enough sleep.” —Maryam Shahid, sophomore

“In the beginning, I really despised the phone ban, but my friends and I are resourceful. We make it work by planning our meetups in advance.” —Sterlynn Gillespie, sophomore

“I don’t hate the phone ban as much because it helps me be off my phone and stop scrolling reels during my frees, but it’s annoying sometimes because I can’t get work done online, so I try to get everything I can do in school done in school.” —Serena Shao, sophomore

“In September, I thought the phone ban was a great idea because I agree that school should be as much of a distraction-free zone as it can be. I think enforcement of it is difficult and most people use their phones and don’t get caught, but the risk of getting caught does prevent phone use from being excessive which I think is good. I go out more for free periods, now, to do homework, and when I don’t have work to do during a free period, I still go out so I can listen to music. I’d say more people go out this year than last year.” —Helena Suh, sophomore

“In truth, I have mixed feelings about the phone ban. On one hand, it is definitely annoying, especially if you have work left to do that you could only do on your phone, like scanning pages. The ban also causes us to rely more on our memory, and while that could be beneficial, memory is inherently faulty, causing errors in work. On the other hand, this ban is nothing new to me. I had to deal with something similar back in middle school, and so it doesn’t affect me much as a freshman who is already used to this, as opposed to a senior who had gotten used to using phones in school freely.” —Musfirat Shabah, freshman

“I think the phone ban has generally caused more inconvenience than it has helped. With so many teachers posting material online rather than on paper, I often feel less productive during the school day than I could be if I had access to the internet. I am aware of alternatives like the computers on the third and seventh floors and in the library, but these are in high demand, and are sometimes taken when I need them. Additionally, if I want to quickly look up something when I’m studying for a test, I have to go to a lot more trouble to get my information. On the plus side, it feels like everyone is socializing more, but I still feel that a less harsh alternative to the phone ban which was more flexible towards students would be a better option. At the very least, they could add more computers to the hallways.” —Cia Guntrunk, freshman

“My middle school didn’t allow us to use phones anyway, and I found that I was more inclined to actually talk to people in the halls rather than scrolling reels. The phone ban also forced me to get work done at home without device access during frees, but there were definitely times that I really wanted to have my phone out for something.” —Jerry Dong, freshman

“My perspective on the phone ban hasn’t changed since September. I think that it’s a good policy to prevent students from using really addictive apps during class. However, if by the “phone ban” you’re also encompassing the ban on personal laptops, I HATE the phone ban. I really don’t like that I have to sit on the bridge if I want to use my laptop to do homework that can literally only be done online. I feel like the DOE, when making the personal device ban, really overlooked the impact of increasing digitalization in education. Like, what do you mean I can’t do my Google Classroom responses and DeltaMath during my free period? I don’t want to have to SPRINT to the library everyday before my free in order to do online work.” —Calista Loo, freshman

“My initial opinion on the phone ban was that it could be helpful for fostering better student relationships despite being annoying. However, I have a much more negative view on the phone ban now, since it makes studying and checking assignments more inconvenient. As many teachers post assignments online, my main options are either to go to the library (which can be too full or not have any computers left) or outside if I want to get work done. It also seems counterintuitive to generally ban all internet-enabled devices when the world is rapidly digitalizing.” —Haley Huang, sophomore

“My initial reaction, like many of my peers, was very negative. The reason for that was, in part, concerns over studying, but also, admittedly, a fear of knowing the boredom that would be faced in my free periods. I don’t think my opinion on it has changed in any way. It’s very counterproductive, as I don’t think it actually changed much for the better. Another issue is communication with teachers. When plans change, it’s hard to reach them. My habits haven’t really changed because last year, I barely studied in my free periods.” —Sophie Wong, sophomore

“I haven’t found any benefits to having the phone ban, since all it seems to do is prevent me from working on digital assignments during school hours. Before it, I could use my free periods to do homework, which let me have less work once I got home (and let me go to more clubs or extracurriculars). It does seem the ban has gotten more relaxed; either students are getting better at evading it, or teachers have stopped enforcing it (as much).” —Constantin des Georges, sophomore

“When I found out they imposed a phone ban, I wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t too bummed out either. That was until I discovered it applied to my laptop too. I rely on my laptop to do almost all of my work, so the phone ban really set me back. Using the library computers really isn’t the same because I can’t even sign into my stuy.edu email, and those computers obviously don’t have the same tabs saved as my laptop does. I don’t see the point in banning laptops too if the state’s goal is to ban distractions in the classroom—no student is going to whip out an entire laptop to text or scroll during class. In the first two weeks of school, I thought the school would actually enforce the rule strictly. To be honest, most teachers don’t care. If they really do get mad, they might confiscate it or tell you to put it away like before, but most of them don’t bother. I think it’s because none of them want to disrupt their schedule and take a trip all the way down to the first floor just so a student can’t use their phone for the day. I don’t know anyone that actually uses their phone pouch anymore; it’s so useless. Phone usage wasn’t a big problem at Stuy in the first place, because most kids don’t use their phones in class anyway. I definitely don’t use my phone throughout the day as much as I did before, but I still whip it out sometimes to check important messages or text my mom. The phone ban is really not enforced in the cafeteria at all, so I just take out my laptop and do work after I eat lunch there. My counselor recently told me that they have passes for kids looking to use devices to do work in the counselors suite, so I’ll probably be going to the counselors suite during my ninth gym free. As for my 10th free, I’m either at practice, or I go to the speech and debate room to work on my laptop. This is a huge, huge change because I used to go to the library during every free period I had freshman year. Now, the library is one of the places where the phone ban is enforced the most, because there’s librarians walking around all the time. I haven’t checked into the library in a long, long time.” —Olivia Liu, sophomore

“Personally, I think that technology is still super integrated into the schoolwork and homework at Stuy. And the fact that most Stuy students are programmed for at least two frees a day (including lunch) means that if we want to finish any homework, we can only do it at the library, on non-personal devices. Using laptops or phones to do homework has been a thing for so long at Stuy that most teachers or monitors will usually just turn a blind eye to someone using their device (though relying on that when taking yours out is still risky). I have stopped taking my laptop to school because I don’t want to use it at the risk of getting caught, and I have stopped completing homework during school hours.” —Sudipta Debnath, sophomore