Last updated April 12, 2019
Could allowing cell phones in schools be a good thing? That is the possibility that has been raised by both researchers and scientists who suggest that the devices are now becoming a kind of all purpose “Swiss army knife” for day to day living in the 21st century.
More than 83 percent of everyone in the United States has a cell phone, according to a recent study conducted by the Pew Internet and Life Project. More than 50 percent of 3000 adults who were surveyed across a period of one month said they used cell phones in order to access information quickly, with 25 percent saying they would often have trouble carrying out a task if they did not have their cell phone with them.
A dramatic 40 percent of cell phone users claim to have found themselves in emergency situations where their phones were able to be of help, while 42 percent said that cell phones alleviated boredom, albeit conceding that the devices could also sometimes be distracting or even rude in social situations or one-on-one engagements.
As a result, MediaShift has questioned why cell phones are banned in schools given that students are likely to need them in much the same way as adults, a fact that many students have already described as being one of the biggest obstacles they face in regards to the use of technology in the classroom. A recent article in the New York Times also claimed that cell phones could actually cause brain activity to speed up.