Because of the recent advancements in technology and humans’ natural instinct to be infatuated with anything that makes life easier or more entertaining, Gen-Z is stuck with the image of caring more about what is on a screen than in front of our faces. 

Some of the side effects of this common conception—whether incorrect or not—are policies and regulations placed on cell phones throughout schools. Including the ones in place at FHC. 

My parents have always been more strict about me and my sister having technology than some parents. We weren’t allowed to have phones until our fourteenth birthday, so the school’s phone policies never had quite the same effect on me as they did on other students. 

In the several years since FHC announced that cell phones were one hundred percent banned during school hours, several different opinions about the subject have arisen. The two opposing sides have mainly come from two parties. The FHC students and the FHC staff and parents. 

It may be the generational difference between the two parties, or maybe just the fact that students want to be on their phones and adults think it’s too distracting. However, the fact remains that the differing opinions about the policy have caused some discomfort between staff and students.

So here’s the question: is the FHC phone policy making that much of a difference in the learning experiences of the students?

Despite the fallacy that the only thing “kids these days” want to do is look at their phones, this frankly isn’t the case. 

Of course, smartphones make our lives both simpler and more entertaining because that is what they were made to do. For some reason that makes some people think that once teenagers get their hands on a phone, they’ll never want to do anything else with their time. 

Phones aren’t a distraction, and having them doesn’t mean that the user is incapable of all ambition for anything else. 

If the school dissolved the phone policy, it wouldn’t mean that students’ grades would suddenly drop. Under the pressure of tests, quizzes, and exams we want to pay attention during class and get as much out of it as possible. And even forgetting about wanting to do well on tests, a lot of the students at FHC do enjoy learning, and wouldn’t use their phones as an excuse to not. 

One of the main arguments made by the adults enforcing the rules about phones is that smartphones reduce our social lives and time spent getting to know our peers. This argument just doesn’t make sense to me. 

The majority of teenagers want to make and spend time with their friends. We want to eat lunch together, we want to talk to each other during passing period, and we want to walk around school with each other before the first bell. Even if we were allowed to look at our phones, most of us wouldn’t spend more time on them than with our friends. 

I wasn’t in high school before the cell phone policy was instated, but I can’t imagine that it had an immense impact on the learning and social lives of FHC students. Despite what many people believe, teenagers are interested in doing other things than staring at their phones all day. A lot of the time, these things are learning about things we are interested in and spending time at school with our friends.