{"id":7866,"date":"2024-10-27T08:00:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T13:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=7866"},"modified":"2024-10-16T14:49:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T19:49:20","slug":"a-smartphone-has-and-is-a-mirror-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/a-smartphone-has-and-is-a-mirror-function\/","title":{"rendered":"A Smartphone Has, and Is, a Mirror Function"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A recently published study looks at the role that ADULTS play in their children&#8217;s phone use.<\/p>\n<p>In this post, I want to outline the study&#8217;s findings, and then consider their broader implications for schools and teachers.<\/p>\n<h2>The Study<\/h2>\n<p>In this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41390-024-03243-y\" target=\"_blank\">recent study<\/a>, led by Jason Nagata, researchers studied survey data from over 10,000 (yes, ten THOUSAND) adolescents. They looked for connections between &#8220;media parenting practices&#8221; and adolescent behavior.<\/p>\n<p>So: if the family use cellphones at the dinner table, does that practice have an effect on &#8212; say &#8212; problems with school work.<\/p>\n<p>Because we&#8217;re asking so many questions from so many people (10,000!), the researchers find A LOT of associations. (By the way, because these are survey data, we might be skeptical about the answers we get.)<\/p>\n<p>Rather than go through each finding, I&#8217;ll highlight just a few:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An increase in <em>cellphone usage at meals<\/em> correlates with an increase in &#8220;problematic&#8221; social media behavior&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>&#8230;and &#8220;problematic&#8221; video game behavior.<\/li>\n<li>Ditto: an increase in cellphone usage in the child&#8217;s\u00a0<em>bedroom<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>When parents reward or punish by allowing\/restricting media usage, this practice correlates with increase in &#8220;problematic&#8221; video game usage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This list could go on (and include dozens of caveats), but those headlines captured my attention.<\/p>\n<p>In brief: if we&#8217;re worried about perils of technology usage,\u00a0<em>the cellphone<\/em> might not be the best place to focus our efforts. Instead,\u00a0<em>the parents<\/em> might be a good place to focus.<\/p>\n<h2>The Bigger Picture<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, this blog doesn&#8217;t focus on parenting. This study, instead, promted me to consider other questions:<\/p>\n<p>Because the &#8220;should we ban cellphones in schools&#8221; debate runs so hot, it resists a nuanced conversation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/AdobeStock_35226217.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7870\" src=\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/AdobeStock_35226217-300x199.jpeg\" alt=\"A baby wearing a suit with a &quot;binkie&quot; in his mouth, hoding and staring at a cellphone\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/AdobeStock_35226217-300x199.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/AdobeStock_35226217-1024x680.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I want to use this study to approach that debate from a slightly different angle.<\/p>\n<p>As I read the case for banning cellphones, it typically includes the phrase &#8220;kids these days.&#8221; Sometimes directly, often indirectly, the argument implies that students themselves deserve the blame for their cellphone use.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00a0want to argue against that implication, for two reasons. (And then one more reason.)<\/p>\n<p><em>First<\/em>: for the most part, students do not buy themselves cellphones.\u00a0<strong>Adults<\/strong> buy\u00a0children cellphones.\u00a0And we buy them the carrier plans and tchotchkes that go with them.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, the public lament often sounds to me like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;How strange and terrible that children use the objects we bought them!&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If we don&#8217;t want our children to use an object, we don&#8217;t have to\u00a0make them available.<\/p>\n<p>(I understand that there&#8217;s a safety argument: &#8220;children need phones in case of emergency.&#8221; I also understand there are MANY ways to allow for emergency communication without smartphones. I&#8217;m looking at you, flip phone.)<\/p>\n<p>This study described above helpfully highlights this point. If adults conjure up a problem, we should not turn around and criticize children for participating in it.<\/p>\n<h2>Resisting Temptation<\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>first<\/em> reason not to blame children: adults probably bought them the smartphones.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>second<\/em> reason not to blame children:\u00a0everyone involved in the smartphone industry makes them\u00a0<strong>as tempting as possible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>For instance: if I create video games for a living, I&#8217;m not bothered that children play my game during their classes &#8212; I&#8217;m DELIGHTED.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Presumably that kind of obsessive devotion means that the game will go, or has gone, viral.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Presumably I&#8217;ll get rich.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Heck, I might even reach the pinnacle of social success; I could become an <em>influencer.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>To expand on the point made above,\u00a0the public lament often sounds to me like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;How\u00a0strange and terrible that\u00a0children use the objects that an\u00a0 entire industry of experts has made as tempting and enjoyable as possible!&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If we don&#8217;t want our children to use a <strong>super fun<\/strong>\u00a0object, we don&#8217;t have to\u00a0make them available. *<\/p>\n<h2>And One More<\/h2>\n<p>I wrote above that we&#8217;ve got at least two reasons to spend less time blaming children for their cellphone use. I&#8217;d like to add one further reason.<\/p>\n<p>(I should say: I am, at this moment, skating out on VERY thin ice. I hope you won&#8217;t be too upset with me.)<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve spent the last 12 years of my life leading PD workshops for teachers: workshops about cognitive science research, and the uses of that research in day-to-day teaching.<\/p>\n<p>I have A LOT of anecdotal data about teachers in groups.<\/p>\n<p>My biggest\u00a0concern during these sessions is NOT &#8220;resistent behavior.&#8221; I almost never have grumpy teachers tell me to get off their lawn. Teachers typically react with great enthusiasm when they get to talk about a cog-sci approach to teaching.<\/p>\n<p>My biggest challenge is: <em>cellphones.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Many teachers simply won&#8217;t put them down.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Many <em>school<\/em>\u00a0<em>administrators<\/em> simply won&#8217;t put them down.<\/p>\n<p>Honestly: a PD talk sometimes feels like that screen-obsessed scene from WALL-E.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s my point: it strikes me as arresting for teachers to be so angry at students for <em>doing precisely what we&#8217;re doing<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>To expand (once again) on the point made above,\u00a0the public lament often sounds to me like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;How\u00a0strange and terrible that students use their phones in the same way that we teachers do!&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If we don&#8217;t want our students to use smart phones, we\u00a0should model the restraint we expect.<\/p>\n<p>More important: the DIFFICULTY we have modeling that restraint holds up an unwelcome mirror. Every time I send a text during a faculty meeting, I should acknowledge\u00a0my participation in the very cultural habit that I decry.<\/p>\n<h2>Solution, Please?<\/h2>\n<p>You might reasonably ask me: &#8220;if everything you&#8217;ve written is true, <em>what should my school do about smartphones<\/em>?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s an entirely reasonable question. I have a tentative answer, and a confident answer.<\/p>\n<p><em>Tentatively:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u00a0see almost no upside to studets&#8217; having and using phones during class; I see LOTS of downsides.<\/p>\n<p>For that reason, I think that in most cases, schools should do everything they reasonably can to limit or prevent cellphones from being out during class.<\/p>\n<p>I suspect &#8212; but don&#8217;t know &#8212; that most schools would benefit from a substantial ban on cellphone use during the day on campus. Students will talk with each other more if they&#8217;re texting each other less.<\/p>\n<p><em>Confidently:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I think a school&#8217;s cellphone policy should <em>include teachers&#8217;\/adults&#8217; cellphone use as well<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Of course: a school&#8217;s relationship with a teacher differs from its relationship with a student. But: teachers&#8217; cellphone usage can absolutely undermine our authority to insist on students&#8217; abstinence.<\/p>\n<p>The phone is a mirror. It both communicates with others, and shows us more about ourselves. We ought to look into that discomforting mirror.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>* Important note: I made this entire argument without using the word &#8220;addicted.&#8221; As I&#8217;ve <a href=\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/is-cell-phone-addiction-really-a-thing\/\" target=\"_blank\">written elsewhere<\/a>, we cannot currently claim that &#8220;cellphones are addictive.&#8221; That&#8217;s a lively research-based debate, not a settled conclusion.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Nagata, J. M., Paul, A., Yen, F., Smith-Russack, Z., Shao, I. Y., Al-Shoaibi, A. A., &#8230; &amp; Baker, F. C. (2024). Associations between media parenting practices and early adolescent screen use.\u00a0<i>Pediatric Research<\/i>, 1-8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recently published study looks at the role that ADULTS play in their children&#8217;s phone use. In this post, I want to outline the study&#8217;s findings, and then consider their broader implications for schools and teachers. The Study In this recent study, led by Jason Nagata, researchers studied survey data from over 10,000 (yes, ten [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[231],"class_list":["post-7866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-cellphones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7866"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7874,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7866\/revisions\/7874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}