New York Governor Hochul has released a report titled “More Learning, Less Scrolling,” which aims to restrict smartphone use during school hours. This comes in response to a study conducted by public health and pediatric researchers, led by Lauren Hale of Stony Brook University, examining adolescents' smartphone usage.
The study monitored smartphone data and found that adolescents aged 13 to 18 spend an average of 1.5 hours per school day on their devices. These findings were published in the JAMA Pediatrics research letter, “Adolescent Smartphone Use During School Hours,” on February 3.
Lauren Hale explained, “Unfortunately, too much of the existing research on digital media use relies upon self-reported data. In this study, we were able to objectively assess smartphone use, enabling a much more granular understanding of timing and content of smartphone use.” She further expressed concern as both a researcher and a parent about students missing out on learning and social interactions due to phone usage during school.
The research team from Stony Brook University developed an IRB-approved protocol for the study. They engaged Ipsos, a survey research firm, to recruit participants nationwide. Nearly 300 adolescents participated in a survey and installed RealityMeter to track their phone usage. The sample was narrowed down to 117 eligible participants who provided data for at least two school days each week.
The results showed that over 25 percent of these adolescents used their smartphones for more than two hours during school hours. Popular apps included text messaging, Instagram, video streaming services, audio applications, and email.
Hale's team suggests conducting more extensive surveys with larger samples representing diverse segments of society. They concluded that while phones can be beneficial for communication and learning purposes during school hours, most current usage is not aligned with educational goals: “Parents and adolescents may derive benefit from access to phones for communication and learning purposes during school. However, application usage data from this study suggest that most school-day smartphone use appears incongruous with that purpose.”
This research received support from the Della Pietra Family Foundation.