Apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube have implemented short form content that have taken the world by storm. Despite the popularity, and grasp these platforms have taken, the underlying issue is that these platforms are ruining its consumers’ lives by destroying their attention spans, focus, and mental health. As a result schools across the world have put phone bans in place requiring students to hand in their phones, or keep them in their backpacks. However, students have found ways to subdue these rules through their computers, and secrecy, reaching the core problem schools try to stop. If schools aim to ban phones, and the privileges that come with it they need to “up their game”. 

The National Library of Medicine ran an experiment on 1,047 under-graduate students, and found that short-form addiction directly impacted academic procrastination. Another study was conducted by the National Library of Medicine on 38 people with a mean age of 21.8 years old that showed short form content addiction led to negative impacts of self, and executive control in attentional functions. Social media not only affects people’s attention, and focus, but also negatively impacts users’ mental health. Yale medicine conducted a study on teens and found that users who spent 3 hours or more a day on social media could experience cyberbullying-related depression, body image and disordered eating behaviors. In schools the effects of social media are present in the classroom, and outside. The impacts on attention span, and focus effect students academic performance, while the addictiveness of social media can be proven a barrier between social connection.

The negative impacts of social media on students has been noticed by schools, hence the phone ban, in which schools aim to shut off students’ abilities to access social media, and support social connection, and academic focus. However, many students have found loopholes around the new rules. However students are able to access social media without their phones, for example students with their own computers are able to access apps like instagram, and tiktok through the web. These loopholes have subverted the institution of the phone bans at school. If schools are adamant on the ban they should implement systems like taking phones at the start of the day, or putting a restricted browser. Schools should go all in or back off of the ban.