Cell Phones Themselves — Not Just Social Media — Are the Root of the Problem
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why the device itself, not just specific apps or platforms, is at the root of many school safety and behavioral issues.
Key Takeaways
- The device is the problem - Focusing only on social media platforms misses the broader harm caused by constant phone access
- Phones enable violence coordination - Cell phones play a role in organizing fights and other dangerous behavior on campus
- Banning apps isn't enough - Schools need to address phone access entirely, not just restrict specific platforms
Transcript
cell phones are at the root of a lot of these gigantic brawls that are happening on school campuses.
The New York Times has a detailed article this week on some of the high-profile fights that have led to multiple arrests, suspensions, expulsions, and even deaths as a result of students fighting and filming those fights and just all the drama that can happen when students are talking to one another through their phones.
They're arranging fights via phones.
They're filming fights on their phones.
continuing to start stuff and escalate stuff after a fight.
They're spilling out into the community with further violence.
And the root of all of this is, of course, the cell phones.
Even if you take social media out of the equation, and it is part of the equation, but even without it, students are using AirDrop.
They're sending things directly to one another.
And just the number of students who are filming during a fight has, in some cases, been a pretty significant problem because it prevents adults from intervening.
It draws further attention and, you know, further social pressure.
So it's not just like a fight between two kids who aren't getting along.
It is a big spectacle.
And that spectacle, I think, is one that we as adults can tamp down quite a bit by simply not allowing kids to be on their phones at all during the school day.
And a made bans on having your phone out at all during class, during passing period, during lunchtime.
But a lot of schools have only gone halfway.
They've only banned phones during class time.
So during passing period, during lunchtime, during any time when they're not actively, you know, supposed to be in class with their phones away, there is an opportunity for kids to get into trouble, to start stuff, to escalate stuff, to film stuff that other kids are getting into.
And a lot of those opportunities for distraction and violence go away if we have a strict ban on cell phones being out during the day.
Away for the day, you know, obviously if kids have their phones on them, it is always possible to get them out.
But if we have developed a culture on campus of nobody's on their phones during the day, then we're simply not going to have as many issues like that pop up.
because students are not communicating, coordinating, escalating, and aggravating one another in that way.
I think if we want to prevent these huge brawls where people get hurt, cell phones have to be part of the solution.
Getting them away for the day has to be it.