At Ankeny High School (AHS), some students have become over-reliant on their phones, negatively affecting their minds. Despite the backlash it received, the new AHS phone policy may positively affect students’ mental health and academics.

Unnecessary reliance.
Students at AHS as well as people generally everywhere have the same problem. We have an unnecessary reliance on technology that previous generations have not had.
AHS AP Psychology teacher Ruth Speth had this to say regarding the matter, “In some ways, we have more stress because of that, TikTok and social media.”
While many use social media and technology to reduce stress, it also may cause extra stress for a variety of reasons. One example is that high social media usage can cause addiction. Some students don’t understand their addictions, which leads to further problems including stress. The second reason is that people often post stuff on social media that may lead to later regret. The fear that something one has posted might come back to haunt them is a major factor in the stress social media may cause.

Once in my seminar amidst the pending AHS phone ban, a question was asked that really made me wonder about the current state of students’ minds. Doctor Johnson gave a message over the intercom that caused a slight outroar. He went over the impending policy that would ban phones during class as well as in the hallway. Students in the class immediately started complaining about it and talking about why they thought it was bad. I don’t remember their exact words but somebody said something along the lines of, “What if I need to take a step out of class for a few minutes to take a mental break and look at Tiktok.” My first thought was that they sounded stupid. If you have the need to step out of class to look at TikTok, maybe you have a different problem, rather than just stress. 20 years ago, or even just 10 years ago, the idea of “needing TikTok” or “needing my phone” wasn’t a thing. To me, this is a sign of our mental depreciation. – Gabriel Brannon

Student perspective

Many students at Ankeny High School have different opinions regarding how cell phones should be allowed in the building.
“I think that phones and rising technology is bad for us and it’s probably cooking our brains, but I also don’t think the school should be able to take them away from us,” AHS junior Carter Lacina said.
While Lacina states that technology is hurting us, he disagrees with the idea that they can be taken from us.
“I think that even though it’s better if we don’t have our phones in school, the school shouldn’t be able to take them from us. We should be allowed to have them even if it’s hurting us” said Lacina.
In other words, it is Lacina’s opinion that having our phones in school is harmful; however, the issue of taking them away is more of a rights issue than a health one. This goes to show, how AHS students don’t necessarily understand the reasons why the policy was instated to begin with, this disconnect shows how both the Ankeny Community School District and students have approached this policy.

From what I’ve seen, most students here at AHS truly believe that the school phone policy is objectively bad, but to me, it seems that this belief is forced. Students don’t want their phones to be taken away, so they try to come up with usually false arguments as to why the policy is objectively bad. It’s clear to me that these arguments aren’t based on real facts and are based on what students believe is fact. Students will have an idea that they may only partially believe, but since they want to believe it they take it as fact. An example of this is when one of my friends was talking about how most students don’t have a problem being on their phones during class, and that they should only punish those who abuse their phones. When you take a clear look around you and observe what’s really happening, you realize that most students do have a problem with being on their phones during class. In this case, the friend who was speaking to me was not somebody who is very focused during school, and having their phone on them is just an extra distraction. In short, students here at AHS don’t want to believe that the phone policy is good, therefore they won’t believe it, despite what is a fact.

Technology is important to keep
While some students do think the phone policy is good, a large majority of them think we should keep our phones and restrict the use of technology.
“I would say that our phones, as well as technology, are important to keep in schools because it’s not going anywhere and it’s the future,” AHS junior Gabriel Vesperman said.
A major focus of modern education is to prepare students for the future.
“Many people are starting to go into technology-related fields so it’s important to have those [technologies] for younger generations,” Vesperman said.

Vesperman believes that technology and phones will not be leaving society any time soon. Therefore, it’s important to integrate these things into people’s lives so society can progress into the future. Looking at the daily lives of many, technology is a constant tool as well as a distraction, with a large amount of technology implemented into daily life, is it too late to go back to pre-technology lifestyles?

The future will have new technologies and it will have phones. While technology can hurt us, it’s important not to push it too far away, because the future will more than likely be full of it. It’s important to remember that too much of anything can be bad for you and to live life in moderation.