Peer pressure and social norms are powerful influences on behaviour, and they are classic excuses.

Andrew Lansley

Today’s post is only peripherally about education. We all have friends now who are virtually (pun intended) living on their phones. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Adults, children and students message-game-video-photo-latte-social-media-step their way through the day, taking breaks to check weather and even answer actual phone calls.

Addiction: From the Cambridge Dictionary: an inability to stop doing or using something, especially something harmful.

We associate addiction with old-time drugs, alcohol and gambling, but I will throw phones into the list without a second thought.

That word “influencer” deserves special attention. Humans dream big dreams. We do kids no favor by glossing over visions of would-be global prominence, dreams of millions of followers. While there’s no need to dump gallons of reality over aspiring fashionistas and trendsetters in our classrooms, these hopefuls will often benefit from a detox. Like the high school student who is mostly ignoring academics except for the bare minimum required to play in Friday’s football game, our fashionista needs a reality check, needs to answer a version of that basic “What if the NFL does not work out?” question:

What is your fallback plan?

POSSIBLE 2026 GOAL OR ASPIRATION

Parents: How about a regular, scheduled electronics shutdown? Kids can easily become obsessive about social media numbers, comparing follower totals to those of peers’ and unknowns online. Others simply prefer to play games, text friends, or randomly surf instead of listening to the day’s new math concept. Those reasons are only a few of today’s jagged, electronic icebergs crowding today’s adolescent shipping lanes.

I suggest starting with one day a week — one day of reading, puzzles, watercolors, mosaics, baking, card games, board games, model building, ice skating, hiking or any other creative pursuit that has nothing to do with a phone. And, yes, this is a family concept. We all put our phones down.

If this idea seems impossible or too impractical, I will observe that the very impossibility of putting those phones down supports the need to sometimes shut down the phone pipeline. According to AI, “Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disorder characterized by compulsive substance seeking or behavior, continued use despite harmful consequences, and long-lasting changes in brain function … It manifests as a need for a substance or activity (like gambling, sex, or tech) that interferes with life, causing physical, mental, or social harm.”

Note that word “tech.” Today’s phones are so ubiquitous that they become part of a 24/7 lifestyle, stealing sleep, study time, and focus on nonelectronic, alternative activities. When does a phone become part of a “compulsive behavior that interferes with life and causes harm?” There’s no easy answer to that question.

Eduhonesty: I hope some of my readers whose kids are tap, tap, tapping will try this. One day a week. Or three hours a day. Whatever works for your lifestyle that regularly turns off the phones for a while. Our kids need help. They need the down time they don’t know they don’t have.