Speaker 1: Let's go to Tim from Binghamton. Tim, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today?
Speaker 3: Thank you, David. Do you hear me okay? I can hear you fine.
Awesome. So I'm a teacher. I've called him before a long time listener. I think you're
one of the best voices on the left. Thank you for everything that you do. Pleasure. And I just
want to talk about an epidemic happening in our schools. But teaching for six years now and I've
watched the progression of the addiction to cell phones with kids reach a remarkable level. It is
something that, you know, we ask them as teachers, we don't have a universal policy, but we ask them,
hey, put these phones in a bucket during the instruction time and we're going to try to get
you focused. And they cling on to them almost like heroin as yeah. And I, I just don't know
if there's enough national attention around how we are bringing these kids up with these devices.
And I just I want to know your thoughts on how we might approach this as a national discussion.
Speaker 1: I'm basically with you as to the level of problem that this is. I think it
really is an epidemic. I think there's a couple of different things here. This is a
separate issue from adult so-called addiction to social media. Specifically, I think there's two
different things and we want to make sure we deal with them differently. What you're talking about,
I see it firsthand and a lot of my friends who have kids and from those who teach in schools,
I also hear it and there clearly is something physical that goes on with these screens,
even like with my baby daughter who's not even six months old sometimes. Like if she's just handed
to me for four, 2 minutes and I'm sitting at my desk, even if I face her completely away from the
screens, she starts craning her neck, trying to get a look at the screens. And we don't show her
any screens. Right? So I just basically walk out of the room. It does seem that there is something
just physical going on here. And my concern is attention spans, inability to focus, inability
to do what Cal Newport calls deep work. So at the societal level or at schools, I have no idea what
the solution should be. I know I'm going to take a personal approach, you know, and for now it's
basically no screens, period. And we'll revisit it at some future period, you know, future point. But
no, I agree with you. It's an absolute epidemic. Speaker 3: Yeah. One last quick point. I did work
at a charter school for a brief amount of time where they took the phones out the door. Yes.
And that had a huge impact on teaching and learning. It was incredibly powerful. I just
don't know if public schools have the resources they need to. I mean, it'll take an army to get
the phones at the door and it's going to be a battle. And it's and it's something that the
parents aren't all on board with because they tax their kids in school. It's an absolute nightmare.
Speaker 1: That's what I do, which is I know people who teach at charter schools who have
had good luck with that. They even have these devices that like you hold the phone,
but the phone is in a device. I forget what the name of it is. You just can't use it until the
end of the day. But there is that issue where for for many kids, parents are relying on that
in case they need to communicate anything in cases of emergency or whatever. I don't
know how frequent that is. I don't know how good of an argument that is. But I think even
parents would respond times. It's not censorship. Speaker 3: It's nonsense. It is. So
anyway, I'll let you get some more calls. You're awesome, David. Keep up the great work. Happy
holidays and enjoy the time with your family. Speaker 1: All right. Thank you. And likewise.
Big, big time holiday coming up here in the United States.