Education Week - May 29, 2024 - 16

Cellphone Headaches in Middle Schools:
Why Policies Aren't Enough
Middle schoolers' developmental stage
makes them uniquely vulnerable
to the negative aspects of cellphones
By Elizabeth Heubeck
Middle school has always been a
difficult time for kids. But when you
tack on their near-constant use of
cellphones, this stage of development
can become very problematic.
Research shows that early adolescents
are particularly susceptible to
the seductive risks tied to cellphone
use: Think cyberbullying, catfishing
(creating a fake identity online to
mislead someone), and straight-up
addiction. Putting in place strong
cellphone-usage policies at school
can help curb these associated
problems.
Although the majority of K-12
schools (77 percent at last count)
have policies that prohibit nonacademic
use of cellphones during
school hours, according to the
National Center for Education Statistics,
some teachers, including
middle school educators, embrace
the use of cellphones for in-class assignments-from
making podcasts
to taking nature photos for digital
journals in science class.
But cellphone policies should be
just one piece of a much broader
and thoughtful digital educational
strategy, experts emphasize.
" Most schools have done very little
to address the digital citizenship
piece of the technology end, and
it's often very random and hodgepodge-not
just from district to district
but from building to building, "
said Liz Kolb, a clinical professor of
learning technologies and teacher
education at the University of Michigan.
" There's nobody in the school
who's actually in charge of this curriculum,
which makes it difficult to
figure out who's going to teach it. "
It's a problem worth remedying,
say experts, who explain why middle
school students are particularly
vulnerable to the adverse effects of
social media and how schools can
help.
In middle school, peers are more
important than parents
During adolescence, students
naturally begin to pull apart from
their parents and seek approval from
their peers. Some psychologists describe
it as a process whereby adolescents
engage in behaviors and
attitudes that they feel help them
establish independence from their
parents but can oftentimes be very
impulsive.
Cindy Bourget, a school counselor
who works at Elk Mound Middle
School in Wisconsin, sees it all the
time. " In middle school, peers are
more important than parents, " she
said.
Of course, that's nothing new.
What is relatively new is the ubiquity
of social media, which allows
adolescents to connect with peers-
and other sources of information,
not always reliable or well-meaning-in
a near continuous manner.
Research shows that middle
school students are particularly
susceptible to the negative effects
of social media on their well-being.
In a sweeping 2022 study that examined
survey results from more than
17,400 teenagers and young adults
on how social media use affected
their life satisfaction, respondents
indicated that social media use during
puberty has a particularly negative
effect.
Bourget said she hears a lot of
feedback related to social media
from middle school students, particularly
girls, indicating that they're
having trouble navigating the online
world. " The conversation surrounding
healthy relationships has shifted
so dramatically, from 'how do you
engage in a conversation with a boy'
to 'how do you know if this person is
trying to traffic you?' " she said.
Social media has also exacerbated
the threat of more common
adolescent challenges, like schoolyard
bullying. " Before social media,
when you went home from school,
you could shut it off, talk to adults
in the room. Social media has made
it so there is very little room for the
other voices to penetrate, " Bourget
said. The " other voices " Bourget
references are those belonging to
teachers, parents, and other trusted
adults-those who insert reason into
what, for many adolescents, has become
an otherwise 24-hour reel of
input via social media dominated by
content driven by peers, advertisers,
and even predators.
But unhealthy online communication
doesn't just come from
predatory strangers or bullying
peers. When middle school kids are
allowed to use cellphones at school,
the devices provide parents unfettered
online access to their adolescent
children during the school
day, which experts say can be
unhealthy, too.
" School is the place where kids get
to be independent for the first time, "
said Michael Rich, a pediatrician
and the director of the Digital Wellness
Lab, a nonprofit research center
at Boston Children's Hospital.
" They're building their own society.
If you have mom or dad in your head
all day long, [adolescents] never get
to learn or practice taking care of
16 | EDUCATION WEEK | May 29, 2024 | www.edweek.org
themselves or being themselves in
that environment. "
Rich's position on cellphones in
middle schools is clear: " I think
phones should not be in schools, "
he said, intentionally avoiding the
word " ban. "
" I think we should approach this
not as a ban, but as an opportunity, "
said Rich. A ban, he explains, can
feel threatening to parents-many of
whom have expressed the strong desire
to be able to contact their child
during the school day via cellphone as
their (parental) right and a safety issue.
" The minute you talk about this
as a ban, parents resist, " said Rich.
Instead, he suggests reinforcing to
parents the notion of a cellphonefree
middle school as one that allows
adolescents to gain independence,
as they learn how to take care
of themselves and behave in a way
that reflects the people they are-or
at least those they aspire to be. " I
think smartphones interrupt that in
really profound ways, " Rich said.
Bourget agrees with Rich that
middle school students should not
have access to cellphones during
the school day. " Their brains are not
developed to handle it, " she said. " It
becomes too much of a distraction. "
Students should focus on the
why behind cellphone use
Middle school students may not
have the impulse control to avoid
using their cellphones at school, but
they can be taught to understand
how social media feeds their brain's
desire to engage in the online world,
Kolb said. " They don't know that all
these [online] things they're using
are designed to be addictive. "
She suggests that conversations
with students focus less on how
much time they spend on their
phones and more on how this time
on social media makes them feel.
" This allows students to take ownership,
to recognize that it's OK that
I'm using my device but that I need
to be smart about it so that my body
and brain can be recharged. "
Bourget believes in downplaying
the what of " policing " cellphone
use and focusing instead on the why.
" They're at an age when boundaries
are something they're going to push
against, " she said. At her school,
Bourget tries to focus conversations
about social media in ways
that resonate with her audience. For
example, she's quick to point out
to 7th grade boys-many of whom
are enamored with professional
athletes-how the misuse of social
media can dash the hopes of such
stardom. It's a lesson they're more
likely to remember than simply that
" cellphones shouldn't be used in
school, " she said.
Ideally, the University of Michigan's
Kolb said, such conversations
are couched within a comprehensive
K-12 curriculum that addresses
a range of health issues. " It's not a
one-time conversation, " she said.
That may seem like a big commitment
for schools. But, Kolb explains,
the negative effects of social media
can quickly become bigger problems
when there's no existing education
or curriculum to fall back on, leaving
teachers to manage problems
episodically.
" Drama, friendship issues, cheating,
bullying and the feelings of
depression, stress, or anxiety that
comes from it, " she said, " it all trickles
into school, and then schools
have to address the symptoms. "
A student holds a cellphone
during class at Bel Air High
School in Bel Air, Md., on
Jan. 25, 2024.
"
Before social media,
when you went
home from school,
you could shut it
off, talk to adults
in the room. Social
media has made it
so there is very little
room for the other
voices to penetrate.
CINDY BOURGET
School counselor,
Elk Mound Middle School, Wis.
Jaclyn Borowski/Education Week
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - May 29, 2024

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