Schools are locking up students’ phones, creating ‘severe anxiety’
Lock ‘em up.
Kids are increasingly being asked the impossible — to survive a day at school without their phones.
Hundreds of schools in New York City and the tristate area are about to start the school year using magnetically sealed pouches during the day — so kids aren’t distracted by their digital lives while trying to learn.
The schools, including Pelham Preparatory Academy and Wings Academy, are using the devices designed by Silicon Valley company Yondr.
A corporate spokesperson tells The Post that more schools here are using them than ever before: “Demand has tripled this year. It’s incredibly exciting.”
Yondr’s pouches seal when students place their phones in them at the start of the day. Students then keep the pouches on them so their phones aren’t at risk of getting stolen. When school lets out, they get a code to unlock them.
But while teachers at one Bay Area school are pleased at the renewed attention they’ve gotten in the classroom, some researchers are less enthused. Not knowing what’s going on can cause severe anxiety, research psychologist Larry Rosen told NBC Bay Area.
“I would caution this school that one of the ramifications of this policy is that you’re activating anxiety in your students, which may backfire,” he said.
He advocates for “technology breaks during the school day so students can alleviate their anxiety.”
The pouches are the same ones performers are increasingly asking their audiences to stow their phones in during shows. Musicians such as Alicia Keys and Childish Gambino and comedians including Dave Chappelle and Wanda Sykes have mandated their fans use the pouches to improve performance experiences — and prevent leaks of material.
But if rabid audiences are anything like school children, the anxiety of not having a phone at all times may be too much to bear at times. At a recent Chappelle show, one drunk fan chewed through the bottom of a Yondr pouch, according to the New York Times.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/08/21/schools-are-locking-up-students-phones-creating-severe-anxiety/
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