Letter to the editor
A Montreal man is launching a class-action lawsuit against several parent companies of major social media platforms, alleging that social media is designed to leverage dopamine – a neurotransmitter and hormone associated with pleasure (sometimes called the brain’s ‘reward centre’) – to entrap users into spending endless hours scrolling.
It’s hard to know whether a judge will be convinced that Meta Platforms (which owns Facebook and Instagram) and the owners of TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit should pay compensatory and punitive damages. Regardless, the fundamental premise behind the lawsuit couldn’t be less controversial.
According to analysis on datareportal.com, humanity spends a collective 500 million years on social media per year. Almost everyone can relate to how difficult it is to avoid becoming a major contributor to that statistic.
Why then are smartphones, machines with which one can instantaneously access the addictive platforms crafted by mad scientist techno-utopians in Silicon Valley, still permitted in most Canadian schools?
Look around a restaurant patio, and you realize that many adults struggle to stop themselves from checking in on the latest notification – these cunning gadgets manage to outcompete beer, hamburgers, and conversation for people’s attention.
One can imagine how much more difficult it is for a student without a fully formed prefrontal cortex to resist the urge to scroll in an early morning science class, in which the only competing factors for one’s attention are scientific notation and reverse osmosis.
In an effort to quell distraction in the classroom, Ontario and Quebec have both introduced smartphone bans. Here in B.C., Premier David Eby’s government issued a provincial order mandating that schools come up with a policy restricting phones by September. It’s a good start, but we need to go much further.
First off, the order leaves the writing of the policies to the school districts, leading to varying levels of strictness. It is up to districts, for instance, to decide whether to apply the ban only to class time or throughout the day. Another flaw is that teachers will end up being the ban’s enforcers – another headache in an already tough job.
The ideal approach is zero tolerance. Some American schools have taken this route, with great results. One such case is Bethlehem Central High School in the suburbs of Albany, New York. Students are required to keep phones in a special locked pouch until the end of the day. The rule applies to all students, and there are no exceptions for time in between classes or even for lunch hour.
In an interview with a Washington Post columnist, principal Dave Doemel described the policy as “completely transformational.” He pointed to a cafeteria completely devoid of phones, and full of chattering students, as visual evidence. Lunch monitors at the school say they feel like they’re in the 1980s again.
To Doemel’s surprise, some of the students have told him the harsh ban feels liberating – they are relieved to not have to respond to texts and keep abreast of social media happenings throughout the day. Their minds are freed to focus on the here and now.
The research bears this out. According to a report from the Programme for International Assessment (PISA), there is a “strong association” between smartphone distraction and student outcomes. Students who were distracted by phones in math class scored 15 points lower on PISA math tests than others. According to one study referenced in a UNESCO report, it can take as long as 20 minutes for a student to regain focus after being distracted by the buzz of a notification from the phone in their pocket.
British Columbia students deserve an educational environment in which they can learn and thrive free of unnecessary distractions. Achieving this means keeping classrooms smartphone free by implementing a strict zero tolerance policy – half measures won’t cut it.
Riley Donovan, journalist, editor Dominion Review
