From burner phones to decks of cards: NYC teens adjusting to the smartphone ban

Here's a summary of the main themes from the Hacker News discussion:

The Efficacy and Necessity of Smartphone Bans in Schools

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around whether smartphone bans in schools are effective, necessary, or even a new phenomenon. Some users believe these bans are a positive step towards encouraging more in-person interaction and reducing distractions, while others argue for teaching responsible usage instead of outright prohibition.

"There's no good description of the actual ban here? ... Some of the 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." - duxup
"Even if this is all it’s doing, that’s a win. Most adults haven’t figured out responsible usage." - JumpCrisscross
"I think the other user's question is asking a broader question than you're answering. They likely know the statewide ban is new, but the school policy may not be entirely new. Unlikely that phone usage was unlimited in class with no restrictions before the statewide ban." - duxup
"The statewide ban is a new thing, but phones were already banned when I went to school decades ago, along with gameboys, MP3 players, and all other electronics except a calculator. If you had it out in class, it would get taken away." - throwup238
"I think the newer bans may be more about actual school administration support intended to assure teachers and other staff that there will be effective consequences of continual phone abuse, so that it's not pointless to try to enforce no-phone rules." - xp84
"It was a thing, yeah. The schools around here didn't care. Kids were all on their phones during class, walking through the halls, during lunch, etc. Teachers gave up telling them to put them away because the students ignored them and teachers have no authority anymore." - filchermcurr
"This is confirming some of my suspicion. Smartphone ban articles are trending, so journalists feel pressured to write something about it. They all around to schools and learn about their smartphone policy, then write that as a new-ish thing so they can jump on the trend." - Aurornis
"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." - Simulacra
"my kids’ school has been applying more strict bans on phones. I wish they would just flat-out ban them -- no more phones in school, period. But even with their moderate ban, there are a lot of parents that push back because "what if there's an emergency and I need to contact my child?"" - mynameisash
"State-level regulation provides IMO very necessary cover." - estearum
"It's not a problem without solutions, of course. It just takes an amount of discipline that feels unreasonably burdensome to me (as in "ugh why is this so hard?!")." - rkomorn
"Australia has done this for public schools recently. It's been a huge success. Private schools have banned phones for ages." - SchemaLoad
"At what point did school districts change? When I was in high school, right about the time that cell phones were becoming common among adults but not yet among kids, our school had a blanket policy that all electronics other than calculators and simple watches were to remain in lockers or at home. Having a CD player, pager, pda, cell phone, or pretty much anything else in class was forbidden. Teachers would take them away and you'd get it back from the principal's office at the end of the day." - zdragnar
"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." - rudimentary_phy

The Role of Smartphones in the Decline of Boredom and Attention Spans

A recurring theme is the impact of constant digital connectivity on "boredom" and its perceived benefits, such as fostering creativity, introspection, and in-person socialization. Users lament the loss of mundane downtime and its role in developing these qualities, contrasting it with the "engineered addiction" of modern digital content.

"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." - spcebar
"This. People these days talk about boredom like it's the worst thing ever. ... There are just so many aspects of life that one only really gets nudged into doing at least partially out of boredom, despite ultimately fulfilling so much more." - naasking
"I would not have learned to play the guitar if I had a smartphone then, or if the internet was any faster than a dial-up. Now I have an outlet to make something beautiful out of my loneliness whenever it strikes." - rTX5CMRXIfFG
"Internet ruined me for anything long-form. I'm old enough to remember the Before Times, but a lot of people aren't." - flir
"I used to read books voraciously and, while I do still read books, it's a pretty small number compared to what I used to do." - ghaff
"Hundreds of millions of people are totally oblivious and uncaring of their situation and surroundings, so long as they have access to enough digital distraction. It's the new opiate of the masses." - HPsquared
"Downtime is important, and I don't mean popping on the TV and vegetating until it's time to go to bed." - Dilettante_
"I am convinced these skills will benefit a kid more than being good at doom scrolling." - lrvick
"My ADHD is clearly genetic and I’m heavily medicated for it and even still I have difficulty with phone addiction and self control. I would appreciate an environment that aided in this by making tempting things harder to access." - cjbgkagh
"Boredom is just unacknowledged serenity." - JohnFen (attributing to Jimmy Carr)
"The sedentary nature of teens is a problem. They can’t go outside any more - third places (aka, places where one can be without consuming something) are sorely lacking, doubly so for youth who are driven away by "mosquito" teen-repellent devices, and you need to be able to get there without being in danger of getting pulped by a SUV so tall the driver literally cannot see a child." - mschuster91
"For many people (especially on this site), figuring out how to bypass the blocks is what led to an interest and understanding of technology. At some point you realize that it’s more fun to figure out these puzzles than it is to play silly games that have no real point to them." - orev

The Role of Parents and Societal Factors in Phone Usage and Addiction

Several users point to parental habits and broader societal issues as contributing factors to teen phone addiction. This includes parents modeling excessive phone use, a lack of alternative "third places" for teens to gather, and overarching societal trends of technology dependency.

"The related issue is parents are overly protective of teens and don't give them enough independence. You see this in a lot of different ways from parents wanting to text their kids, to only letting kids do highly managed structured activities, to treating teens as their best friends, to helicopter parenting protecting kids from all adversity, etc etc" - softwaredoug
"And a similar thing happens not just with parents, but society, there are not a lot of places teens can just hang out. A lot of fun things teens would do increasingly ban minors." - softwaredoug
"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." - trentnix
"Parents will struggle to get their kids off their phones if they are spending all their own free time scrolling, scrolling, scrolling." - RyanOD
"Parents unable to be present with their kids, should not be parents." - lrvick
"Get in the habit of putting your phone down when you are in the room with your child. Don't have it on the dinner table, or anywhere you would socialize with your children." - hvs
"The oldest two seem to have a healthy relationship with their devices (as tools) and are just as happy to put them down and go outside or spend time with other people." - jdshaffer (describing his children's upbringing)
"Many parents I talk to have this notion that idle-time/free-time for their children is unproductive, a waste of time, and thus bad for their children. And that's why they feel the need to micromanage their kids' time..." - jimt1234
"When I was a kid in the 1980's and early 90's the mall was the place to go and hang out. Go to the food court, arcade, shoe stores, Spencer's gifts. Google "malls that ban teenagers" and you will find a lot of articles." - lizknope
"It’s like an inverse Schrödinger's cat. They can't be at school after hours because it's closed or because school is an unsafe place for them (e.g. bullying). They spend too much time in front of computers, their Boomer parents cry about violent games turning their kids into killers or porn turning them gay. They can't be on their phones because Boomers cry that they're not doing anything else." - mschuster91
"It turns out this is basically 100% of parents in that cohort. Similar with TikTok, finding a parent who says "(endless hours of) TikTok screentime is fine for my kids" without having the same or more screentime themselves is almost impossible." - easterncalculus

The Nature of Addiction and the Role of Technology Design

Several comments delve into the inherent addictiveness built into modern technology, particularly smartphones and social media platforms. The discussion touches on the "engineered addiction" aspect and whether the problem lies with the device itself or the content and design that drives excessive usage.

"There is no engineered addiction to reading the New York Times, so people just put it down when something else wants their attention." - fn-mote. Counter: "Tell that to all the absolute news addicts out there. News is very clearly addicting, just like loot box games." - spiderice
"The addictive substance is the network,not the phone. Nobody gets addicted to any phone disconnected from the internet. OTOH, as you experienced it's easy to spend just as much time on the laptop or desktop when that has a persistent internet connection." - em500
"Phones are just a means to avoid processing one's emotions. Don't neglect that part of your life and you won't be tempted to scroll, or at the very least you'll be resistant to it." - Tade0
"I am convinced these skills will benefit a kid more than being good at doom scrolling." - lrvick
"What you are demonstrating is that already in 2003, people talking to each other during their commute was a fantasy rather than an actual occurrence. ... The sedentary nature of teens is a problem." - bsghirt
"It’s a tight feedback loop, use of phones is a symptom caused by problems caused by use of phones. To break it you have to stop using the phone." - cjbgkagh
"There is no engineered addiction to reading the New York Times, so people just put it down when something else wants their attention. Looking at a phone is a problem to the extent that it cuts you off from real interactions in society. It is a problem to the extent that the attention you pay to the phone does not go toward solving real problems." - fn-mote
"But the New York Times on a phone is not particularly more or less addictive than the same content on a piece of paper. Nor does reading it on a phone cut anyone off from the rest of society any more than focusing on the printed paper or a book or a Walkman." - bsghirt
"If the problem is games, social media, or porn, why don't we identify those as social problems and try to fix them? Rather than blaming the device." - bsghirt
"Oh! It definitely is, and it was engineered to make it more. The comments make sure of that, then you've got the alerts for Breaking News, the sense of urgency in animated visuals with shiny colors. Of course, the NYT in a phone is far more addicting." - elzbardico
"Naming the device where we consume addictive content is just a convenient shorthand. If we just stuck to the same NY Times articles we would have read in the paper that would be fine. But very few of us have the will power to pick up our device and not wonder into social media apps." - jimbokun
"What we really need is regulation of the tech companies driving the addiction. We've long since discovered that megacorps engineering addiction are more powerful than individuals ability to resist." - SchemaLoad
"The end result is still teenagers losing a place to go. ... the end result is still teenagers losing a place to go." - pavel_lishin

The Historical Context and Evolution of School Technology Policies

Users reflect on how school policies and student behavior regarding electronics have changed over time. Some recall stricter policies from decades past, while others note the increasing prevalence and difficulty of managing smartphones in schools.

"This was exactly how it was when I was in middle school in flip-phone days (and it happened to me once!)." - darknavi
"When I was in high school, right about the time that cell phones were becoming common among adults but not yet among kids, our school had a blanket policy that all electronics other than calculators and simple watches were to remain in lockers or at home." - zdragnar
"The ban in NY specifies the entire school day, as opposed to just during class." - macNchz
"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." - rudimentary_phy
"In my day in the US midwest, it was Euchre." - jrochkind1 (referencing games played in school)
"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." - MisterTea