when florida banned phones from schools, a gold-standard causation study found a benefit of 0.9 percentiles on standardized tests between students who were under the ban and those who could use phones freely. this is about the same impact as studying for a standardized test for 1 hour.

we have had a lot of chances to study this stuff, and the results - like the teen sleep study and the teen wellness studies, both conducted by the same people and NOT capable of determining causation, but nonetheless the best publicized in the media - are real, but they are small.

so the stuff you are saying might be true, but the effect might be so small as to be meaningless. there are bigger threats to society than social media.

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KptMarchewa a day ago | parent | next [-]

Banning phones from schools only is not enough.

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thinkingtoilet a day ago | parent | prev [-]

There are of course bigger threats, but have you ever talked to one of these gen Z zombies that have fried their brain on their phone? My nephew is one. He has the thousand yard stare, can barely have a conversation, and has no ability to do anything off his phone. Of course, it's not everyone, but the effects of phone use are beyond obvious and clearly destructive.

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SpicyLemonZest a day ago | parent | next [-]

I remember being a zombie nephew, although back in those days it was the Game Boy that purportedly fried my brain. (It was entirely normal, of course, for the uncle who told me that to then leave the conversation and retreat to his armchair for his daily 3 hours of baseball watching; that's sports, you can't fry your brain with sports!)

	▲	thinkingtoilet a day ago \| parent [-]
		Obviously it's not healthy to plop down in front of a TV for hours ever day. The science behind what social media is doing to young brains is very real, and to compare it to gameboy is arguing in bad faith.

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chasd00 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> one of these gen Z zombies that have fried their brain on their phone?

kids today..

"of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable" - Plato

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doctorpangloss a day ago | parent | prev [-]

personally i reject any frame of mind that makes stubborn, labeled generalizations about kids based on one or a handful of interactions. the people who conduct their business this way: they are always projecting.