As a teenager, on average, I spend about six hours a day on my phone. I wake up and immediately check my phone, which has been lying next to me all night. I make sure to check it while I am getting ready for school, at school, when I come home from school, and finally, before I go to bed. Each day, the cycle repeats itself. Constantly, I am scrolling, liking, texting, and sharing. When I don’t have my fix in my hand, I reach for my pocket, always expecting it to be in its place. Throughout my junior year of high school, I find myself losing motivation and having a shorter attention span. I decided my phone definitely played a part.

Currently, there is an ongoing debate in schools about whether the phones stay or go. Specifically, where I live, the Massachusetts Board of Education is considering whether to ban or restrict the use of electronic devices in schools. Different towns in Massachusetts have already begun implementing these restrictions, but mine has not. Challenging myself to go to school without my phone could be a preview of what that would look like. As rumors circulate that next school year might be phone-free, I decided to try it for myself. For my personal credo project, I would go to school without my phone for two weeks and record my reactions and reflections. 

Extensive research has been done to prove that cell phones are destroying this generation. Teachers around the world despise them, as they have to fight with phones for their students’ attention. There are clear links between phone addictions and declining mental health. In the article, “Get Phones Out of Schools Now,” the author, Jonathan Haidt, explains that there is evidence of an “international epidemic of mental illness,” which began in around 2012. The declining mental health levels correlate exactly with the rise of social media. From the same article, psychologist Jean M. Twenge states how there has also been a global increase in loneliness at school. Not surprisingly, this also began around 2012. Advocates for phone usage say phones create new sources of communication, but are kids actually becoming less social? 

Knowing this background, I was excited to see how I would react to being cellphone free. Had I really become less social? Has everyone around me become less social? I was determined to find out. 

I will admit the first few days were definitely a struggle. I thought this was going to be easy, but I was wrong. My first step of the process began: withdrawal. You don’t realize how much you rely on something for comfort until it’s gone. Throughout the day, I would reach for my pocket, not feel my phone, and begin to panic. When class would end, I was not able to scroll mindlessly like I typically do–I was forced to communicate with real people. Specifically, I noticed that during lunch, there were many more awkward moments of silence. Usually, during lunch, when the conversation reaches its end (if there is any to begin with), everyone will go on their phones. I like to think of it as a chain reaction. You see one person go on their phone, so then you feel it must be a socially acceptable time for you to go on your phone. Without the cellphone safety net, when the conversation dies down, no one knows how to keep it going. 

As the week progressed, I started to feel more comfortable without my phone on me 24/7. I was able to recognize that I was much more focused on my work and what the teacher was saying in class. I entered the second phase of the process: realization. Maybe all of the research was actually true–maybe my phone did weigh me down. This thought led me straight to the third step of my process: implementation. The practices I was doing at school soon bled into my home life. The weekend after my first week with no phone, I was able to complete much more homework than I typically do. Instead of saving it all for Sunday night, I began Sunday morning. Without my phone, not only had I completed the assignments for the next day, but I started doing extra work just because I felt like it. 

Heading into the second week of phone-free schooling, I saw my phone in a different way. I began my fourth and final step of my process: reflection. My awareness of phone usage around me grew stronger each day. I can confidently say that most people in my school are addicted to their devices. During the day, I would feel lighter. I was able to experience my school day as an education and not a social event. Seeing how little my classmates communicated face-to-face, I learned how heavily my community relies on cell phones for comfort and the panic that forms when they don’t have them.

I was able to have a few major takeaways from this experience: My null hypothesis was rejected. Human connection is actually strengthened when cell phones are removed. Face-to-face communication is much more valuable than sending a text. I decided my phone adds an unnecessary weight to my life. Even though the two weeks are over, I will be working hard to implement my own strategies to limit my phone use. If the school board decides my senior year will be phone-free, I would be more than happy to comply.