Psychologist Jonathan Haidt predicts that most American schools will be ‘phone-free’ by next fall
Social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt recently predicted that American schools will ban smartphones from classrooms by next fall.
Haidt, whose recently published book “The Anxious Generation” awakened Americans to the harmful effects of smartphones and social media on their children, spoke with The Free Press (TFP) recently, saying that parents and teachers are now taking the issue seriously and are pushing to ban the devices in schools.
“I think we’re going to have the vast majority of schools in the United States phone-free,” Haidt told the newspaper, pointing to next September as the likely point when schools will ban smartphones.
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Psychologist Jonathan Haidt recently spoke to The Free Press about how American schools want to ban smartphones in the classroom. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images))
The report on Haidt’s impact began by describing how schools have tried to limit students’ access to smartphones in recent years, and teachers have worried that the devices have captured children’s attention in the classroom, a dynamic they say stems from social isolation and virtual learning encouraged during the pandemic. COVID-19.
“They were looking at me like I was just going ‘whoa, whoa, whoa,'” Seaside School District teacher Suzanna Kruger told The Free Press, describing her students on their phones in the classroom after a year of distance learning.
She added “that most of the children in her class were either sleeping with their heads on the table, with headphones on their ears, or rolling their ‘dead eyes’ via TikTok. And when she asked them to hand over their device, she said that most of the students simply ‘refused,'” the media reported.
As Kruger and other educators realized this problem, Seaside and other school districts recently decided to ban the devices in schools.
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Haidt predicted that most US schools will ban smartphones by the start of the next academic year. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
“Seaside has joined thousands of schools across the country in recently banning smartphones as evidence mounts that they are linked to test scores drop and rising rates of mental illness among teenagers,” the report said, adding that similar bans will take effect after the winter break for schools in Virginia, South Carolina and California.
The publication singled out Haidt as one of the main reasons why awareness of the dangers of smartphones has spread so quickly. The report’s author, Olivia Reingold, wrote: “Why is this movement finally getting results now? I spoke to about a dozen people – educators, activists and parents – and they all offered the same answer: Jonathan Haidt.”
The author’s book has been praised by prominent figures on both the right and the left, including Governor Ron DeSantis – who smartphones are prohibited from K-12 public schools in 2023 – former President Barack Obama and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Psychologist Jean Twenge told The Free Press, “There’s been a lot of progress in the last year after years of relatively slow progress. A lot of that has to do with Jon’s book—it’s really brought the conversation to the forefront. It’s inspired a lot of principals and superintendents to introduce stricter rules.”
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The release described the book’s approach to achieving Haidt’s “Great Rewiring of Childhood,” which requires implementing four “fundamental rules.” “These are: no smartphones before high school, no social media before 16, no phones at school and more unsupervised play and independence for children.”
Haidt told TFP that he was “flabbergasted” at how quickly awareness of the issue had spread, saying, “The only other example of social change that I’ve seen that happened so quickly was the fall of the Iron Curtain.”
The psychologist claimed that many parents were opposed to the idea of giving their children smartphones, but over the years they succumbed to social pressure. “Every parent has thought, ‘I don’t want to give my child a smartphone at 10, but he comes home and says, ‘Mom, I’m the only one.’ It’s a magic sentence – ‘I’m the only one who doesn’t have it,’ he said.
Now, however, he noted that parents and educators are finally starting to push back now that “it’s clear that all the schools” are in favor of banning them.
