HN Reader

When I was in school, way back in the Before Times, when cell phones were expensive and smartphones were in their infancy, cards or dice would get confiscated and held until the end of the day if the administration suspected they could be used for even simulating gambling.

> Alia Soliman, a senior at Bronx Science, said cards “are making a big comeback.” She said kids are playing poker when they’re done with their work in some classes. Fellow students reported a surge in Uno.

In my day in the US midwest, it was Euchre.

Texas banned phones in schools as well. A local school administrator told me “in the high school, the lunch room is now loud with talking and laughter!”

There are still parents that complain. Turns out they are as addicted to texting with their kids all day as their kids are addicted to the same.

Regardless, it’s great to see that the ban has seemingly nudged things in a healthier direction. Its a failure of leadership that schools needed a statewide ban to make such an obviously positive change.

Nature is healing. Glad to see this. I was in high school when smart phones really became widespread, and was personally still on a flip phone most of the way through. I think there's something healthy to the boredom the kids describe, which ultimately leads to socialization and introspection. 24/7 social media seems like a very destructive portal to isolation, and having a reprieve from that, if only a few hours a day, seems like a great thing.

hello, i’m usually a lurker on this website, but i decided to make an account and comment since this is somewhat relevant to me.

i’m a senior in high school in one of those states with new laws about cell phones and electronics. i’m not particularly in favor of these new laws since i’m affected by them firsthand, but i can understand why they were implemented.

a few of my habits have had to change because of these new rules: - i now write my to-do lists on sticky notes instead of on my phone. - i write notes in a small a6 size notebook instead of using a notes app. - i now carry a book and my ipod nano to lunch.

because of these new rules, i do spend more time on my school-provided ipad, however. the school blocks a lot of the websites i typically visit. there are bypasses though — i can easily find instances of redlib if i want to scroll reddit, use a “cookie free youtube watcher” and paste a youtube link if i want to watch a video, and github isn’t blocked, but github pages are. most llm websites are blocked (claude, deepseek, mistral, gemini), but chatgpt isn’t for some reason.

if i want to look at a blocked website that isn’t one of those above, i can use startpage.com’s anonymous view.

i think the days feel longer now without my phone.

Excellent news.

Though what bothers me is all the high schools mentioned are the top prestigious ones you had to apply to, not zoned. Brooklyn Tech, Gramercy Arts, Bronx Science, I'm surprised no comments from Stuyvesant students.

> Alia Soliman, a senior at Bronx Science, said cards “are making a big comeback.” She said kids are playing poker when they’re done with their work in some classes.

Ha! When I was in NYC high school in the 90s we were not allowed to have playing cards or dominoes. The staff would confiscate them because it was believed to encourage gambling. Quite amusing that now they are the saving a generation of kids from mindless scrolling.

I'm not really against phones, but I don't understand when they became acceptable to begin with. I keep reading about them being recently banned in my area as well, but I distinctly remember them not being allowed when I was younger. It was the early era of flip phones back then, but they also got after most other electronics as well.

Playing cards during breaks, reading a lot, interacting with others, listening to radio a lot, that was the student me when I went no tv, no computer (cause I was already addicted to programming, Internet wasn't yet everywhere) to force myself to socialize more. I hope these kids will have nostalgic memories of that time as well.

Our school started this year: Heard one kid says: "What am I supposed to do in the breaks!!" OMG. But, the kids are playing games, talking to each other. Learning viral skills for the workplace all while relaxing. Winwinwin.

There's no good description of the actual ban here?

At my kid's school phones and all other electronics can't be visible when class starts or ends or the teacher takes it.

I'm ok with that.

Some of the more universal bans I don't get, we should be educating kids on responsible usage, total ban seems like just pushing bad choices down the road.

One interesting aspect of technology is that there is little if any structure.

I just posted a talk by Seymour Papert from 1991 where he said that kids were on computers or Nintendo for 6 hours at a time, which surprised me that even then they were "addictive." He notes that poetry, music, Shakespeare aren't "addictive" in the same way.

I'm optimistic that there will be balance in the future. If Thomson is right that smartphones weren't really the beginning of detachment from society but instead it started more around the television era, it requires us to think how to handle all modern technology to optimize overall well being.

This is becoming more and more common to see these bans in Europe as well. When you combine these changes with current or upcoming social media bans in many countries, and other similar initiatives, it really could be, hopefully, a turning point in civilization’s relationship and understanding of the damages that technology can bring.

These kids are still required to have a programmable graphing calculator in high school, right? Those things, today, are basically phones without the cellular circuitry. Some have Wi-Fi, and those that don't, have enough I/O to be capable of an IR-based classroom LAN.

Somebody should introduce these kids to Meshtastic. The Lily T-Deck series features a built-in keyboard and screen, eliminating the need for a phone. I'm sure someone bright could put a repeater up in a place administrators would never find to cover the entire school.

Sounds delightful. Now do it for adults.

- an adult phone addict

I like this, phones have become too severe of a distraction throughout the school day, especially in lessons. I don't mind if students have their phone at lunchtime, or outside of the academic time, but allowing them to have their phones in class has just been ruinous.

Lovely news.

When our kids learned about substance abuse, they talk about teenage brains being in a critical period. If they get addicted to a substance, while their brain is developing, the addiction runs deeper than if they were an adult. It's a much bigger challenge to break free of the addiction.

Further to the truism that constraining and micromanaging kids have driven up smartphone use: adults do this to themselves too, particularly parents. Watching kids can be fun, but then again, it can be incredibly boring most of the time. You're not going to constantly ask banal questions; kids will often be creative on their own. But as a parent, you're compelled to hover. And hover. And do nothing.

Probably having more of a "village" to help (grandparents especially) would relieve pressure. Also, multiple kids will engage with each other more instead of looking to parents for all social stimulation as only-children.

What ban where?

Not everyone wants to read an article to even find out the location they are talking about or if this is relevant to them... otherwise what's the point of titles and headlines?

We can write much better post titles than this.

I am all for phone bans in schools, but if the alternative is forcing them to use googleshit, and agree to googleshit terms of service, also hard pass.

I would insist any kid of mine be allowed to use open source tools that can be studied and improved, or nothing at all.

Maybe we’ll get back to an era where people connected & form friendships and bonds in a non digital way. Like the video below.

https://youtube.com/shorts/CUfwcIVq6H0?feature=shared

A single school shooting is going to reverse this.