What’s your opinion on the no-phone policy in the morning?
Last week, during assembly, as a college community, we were told that from Term 2, phones will not be allowed on-site as soon as we walk through the gates in the morning. And on top of that, we were told that we aren’t allowed to have AirPods in our ears as well. A shock that left every student complaining as they walked out of assembly on Wednesday.
The reasoning behind this initiative comes from the antisocial behaviour that occurs during the morning as students walk around like zombies glued to their phones. Each stride follows the rhythm of each beat in their AirPods. I know that I am guilty of that. On average, teenagers spend over 20 hours per week on their phones.
This announcement followed a creative and carefully curated video by the executive team about being ignored, a feeling that many students and teachers feel as they walk by. This is why the SRC team launched morning activities, a fun and exciting initiative to play table tennis, chess, activity boxes and my personal favourite, morning breakfast at the start of the term. I know that on the Year 12 retreat this year, a friendly competition of ping pong kept the spirits high amidst looming assessment tasks. If everyone in our college community gets around the morning activities, we could forget about our phones until 3:20 pm.
However, this is easier said than done, because it has become like a routine, from the time we get up, to eating breakfast, to being on the bus and when we find our spot in our year group area. A lot of students find this routine comfortable because it’s a time to be by ourselves before we enter a classroom and must switch on and experience multiple social interactions throughout the day. Yet we all sneakily pull out our phones in the back during class to read a notification. We have nomophobia, which describes the fear of being without a phone, due to phone overuse.
The college has no phone policies from 8:30 am to 3:20 pm, so I don’t think the challenge is to not be on our phones as we enter till 3:20 pm. This is because we don’t have our phones at recess and lunch, yet we still have conversations and play games on the oval.
And according to Psychology Today, switching off your phone for one hour a day improves stress and happiness. And you don’t have to get bored in the morning due to activities that have been put in place for the term ahead.
It’s time to switch off our phones. Are you on board with it?
