Today I read that many schools from NYC to LA want to ban smartphones in school. Well, let me tell you that my high school, Somers High School of Somers, NY (an rural-ish but rich NYC exurb) did actually ban phones back in 2011, and when I graduated in 2015 they still did.
When it comes to mobile tech, the early-to-mid-2010s were almost like the stone age. Whereas most of my peers had an iPhone on Verizon, my family chose to go with Samsung phones on Sprint. For me, it was a Samsung with CyanogenMod. CM was amazing!
Bragging aside, phones back in the day were far less addictive than they are now. Dark patterns were starting to take off but weren’t out of control then. We weren’t as glued to our phones as we are now. You could still break away from your phone much easier then and even 2015 wasn’t that great.
So yes, we should ban phones in schools. My high school did it in the dawn of the smartphone era but why is it only being talked about now and not then?