Knot Pining: No-phone zone era welcome

I magine teenagers in Esko classrooms staring blithely, wantonly, perhaps a bit of drool forming at the corner of the mouth. But it’s not a window daydream accompanied by mesmerizing clouds forming into creatures or a squirrel running up a tree limb.

They are fixed on those pouches. Filled with those tiny devices we all are so tethered to.

This summer, the Esko school district decided to do something about phones in school, part of a movement across the country to reduce distractions during the school day. Now, when an Esko teen enters a classroom, they are expected to diligently place their phone in a numbered pouch and, ouch, grin and bear it.

I think all of us could use a dose of such forced separation.

Pity these students, just a bit.

There is data exploding every day about how social media is mushing our minds and bodies, and we all know it. Addiction is that snowball hurtling down a hill on a sunny, snow-sticky winter day. We know something is bad for us, and that knowledge exacerbates the problem, opens up despair, splats the spirit you need to kick it.

And the creators of this social media world know, like the cigarette makers of old, all the buttons to push to keep us all junkies constantly itching for the next fix. Teens are not alone.

It’s an easy call to tell students that at least for an hour or so, ditch the addiction and place yourself firmly in the old-fashioned world of reading, writing and arithmetics.

But there they are, all those treasure troves of escapism hanging on the wall. Maybe a cover would help, or placing the salivation-inducing lineup inside a closet. Or perhaps students can help themselves and leave the phone in the locker. Or, egads, at home.

We adults of a certain generation might recite the old “uphill both ways” mantra when recalling our school days. But we know the menace teens are facing when trying to break free of the phones. For us older people, they once held a promise to make things easier, streamlined. Smarter, faster, stronger.

Oh, how many of us wish we could simply go back to simpler times. Some are — opting for old flip phones that can text, email and call only. It’s a small slice of revolt against the technological masters.

Teens, of course, don’t know a world without smartphones. They are ubiquitous. Like a backpack. Heavy like one, too.

They have no reference to those carefree days of actually speaking to your peers, making plans and sticking to them. They are constantly lit up with social media, with seemingly something better around every corner.

How will this trend in taking phones out of students’ hands end up? I hope it can just nudge us a bit back to reality, and civility.

I use my phone at work to do the regular reporting phone call stuff. But that’s about it. Journalists have had to kick a lot of things over the years. No more spittoons, liquor bottles in the bottom drawer, lead type.

And it is true that when these teens enter the adult work world, constant connection on phones won’t be as possible as it is for them now. It’s refreshing to see them getting a taste of that now.

But we all know that this is not a generational thing. We all spend far too much time on our devices. Idle time. Wasted time.

I’d often rather be that daydreamer using time in looking at clouds, in a meditative stupor. The thing about all these devices is the realization that without them, we suddenly see time, and our ability to fill it, use it, in a whole different light. Our devices aren’t saving us time, they are bending it and taking it from us.

Let’s stand in solidarity with our kids as they sit through class sans phones. Call it no-phone September, awareness September, in-moment September. It might spark a coveted longer stretch of not being dictated by technology. A real movement.

I should start a blog about this, or a series of 10-second memes.

Wait.

Mike is a reporter and page designer for the Pine Knot News. If you have some thoughts about cell phone use in schools, contact him at [email protected]