School psychologist Katie Sebo said her students’ overdependence on personal technology is harming them and derailing their future.
The destructive cycle is beginning early, with babies being occupied with iPads. “Then at the pre-school age, when they are supposed to be developing collaborative play skills, social interaction skills and emotion regulation skills, they are instead spending their time on a device, often by themselves, and they are missing out on that really important development,” said Sebo, a member of the New York Association of School Psychologists. “Eventually, we see middle schoolers who are unable to resolve conflicts and regulate emotions, and who are engaging in maladaptive online behaviors like cyber bullying and sexting. We’re creating a generation of children who are not prepared to then enter adolescence and adulthood, and it’s going to continue to get worse unless we intervene now.”
Sebo was one of a host of educators and administrators who met as part of Syracuse Disconnected, the fourth in a series of regional conferences designed to explore the impact of cellphones, social media and technology on children and learning. The events, which also took place in Rochester, Plattsburgh and Western New York, highlighted the common concerns educators have about cellphones in school.
“We all have students who come to school absolutely wiped out and cannot function in class because they were up until 3 a.m. living in an unreal world on their phone,” said Randy Freiman, president of the Massena Federation of Teachers. Concerned about the damage cellphones were doing, Massena Central School District implemented cellphone restrictions at the high school. “At first, my students say it was hard for them, but then … they say it’s like we’re kids again. It’s giving us back our classroom again to teach and it’s giving them back their childhood.”
On Feb. 5, NYSUT hosted a Disconnected event in Plattsburgh. The event was co-hosted by Shine On, a nonprofit dedicated to raising confident, resilient girls by teaching them media literacy, communication and character education.
Colleen Lemza, founder of Shine On, Plattsburgh professor and member of the United University Professions – Plattsburgh chapter, said that problems are worse than people realize. “The bullying is just leaps and bounds beyond what it used to be,” she said. “The suicide, the self-harm, the depression rates – all of them are increasing.”
According to the CDC, the suicide rate for boys has increased 91 percent since 2010 and, during that same period, the suicide rate increased 167 percent for girls.
At the Plattsburgh event, educators also talked about the benefits of restricting cellphone use in school. “When we banned cellphones at our high school. Our discipline referrals went down 65 percent,” said David Rounds, president of the Bethlehem TA. The counterargument, cellphones keep students safe, has been debunked, he said. “I trust the FBI and the state police and our local police, who tell us that access to the phones makes the situation more dangerous.”
Safety officials at the Buffalo-area Disconnected event on Feb. 13 agreed that phones detract from student safety. “As a school resource officer, I would feel much more safe if we had cellphones out of our schools, yes,” said David Jarczyk, West Seneca Student Resource Officer. “There’s kids so distracted by phones, they walk into me in the hallway – a walking police officer in the hallway.”
In September 2024, NYSUT convened a conference to discuss the harmful impacts of cellphones and social media on students. The cellphone issue was brought to the forefront in January when Gov. Hochul proposed $13.5 million for school districts to implement bell-to-bell cellphone restrictions as part of her executive budget. According to the proposal, each school district would come up with their own policy.
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