Excessive technology use has become an epidemic in our culture. PXHere

In August of 2019, there will be no ifs, ands or doubts about Academy’s policy on cellphones, because the new technology protocol will be updated and accessible to us in the student handbook. It will be clearly spelled out in black and white.

In August of this year, Academy’s Upper School Administration unveiled a new policy that bans the use of cellphones in the Dining Hall, as well as in hallways en route to-and-from all assemblies. The regulations also prohibit the use of headphones in all common areas. This protocol is the administration’s attempt to encourage more face-to-face interactions and promote the development of social skills within the student body.

The smartphone issue — kids being overly-absorbed in their technology — that the policy works to combat is quite prevalent in our culture.

Some argue that this epidemic doesn’t affect our community. But many of our students are all too willing to avoid interaction by burying their eyes in their screens.

Academy is not immune to this concern.

If one were to walk through the halls of the Upper School, he or she may witness a situation in which more than half of the students in lounges are on their devices. In some cases, friends gather to talk, only to all be distracted by their phones three minutes later: nothing remotely resembling a conversation ever takes place.

Rather than study, students play games on their phones. Rather than say hello to those passing in the hallway, we pretend to be so occupied by our screens that we don’t even notice them.

So the administration is entirely correct in identifying smartphone use as a crucial cultural issue, in our school and beyond. Simply put, these devices are crippling our generation’s ability to converse, be cordial with or even acknowledge one another.

Many have dubbed our generation the “iGen.” That isn’t a compliment.

Still, some have pointed out that students already have a sense of how smartphones impede conversations and often call each other out for excessive use of them.

But recognizing a problem and actually fixing it are two different things.

Academy’s students are motivated and perceptive. We’re quite good at doing the former. But the latter — the actual response to this problem — not so much.

So again, the administration is right to enact these regulations. However able we think we are to monitor technological behavior ourselves, it’s clear that we need some assistance, some nudging in the right direction.

That said, in the first quarter of school at least, the new policy has had a limited effect.

For starters, the new smartphone code has been selectively enforced. Some teachers police students’ technological behavior while others let infractions slide.

This is due in part to a great deal of ambiguity. It remains unclear to many when and where cellphones are or aren’t permitted. A clear, detailed, accessible guideline to the specifics of the new policy – especially in the student handbook – will go a long way next year in catalyzing its effectiveness.

While the administrative regulation is headed in the right direction, it cannot alleviate the cellphone problem altogether. The reality is that no amount of regulation will keep students from being distracted by technology. Laptops, iPads and other permitted devices have virtually all the same functions as smartphones. If students actively want to avoid conversation, they have a variety of ways and devices with which to do so. No amount of regulation will actually force them into interacting. To that end, many insist that contrived, forced and often fake or meaningless interaction is equally as problematic.

Yet this doesn’t mean that the school should turn a blind eye to the issue, or shouldn’t try. On the contrary, such measures are significant.  Even though this new rule hasn’t fixed the problem, the policy has raised an awareness of distracting cellphone use. Even though kids sneak illicit peaks at their tech, our community is far more cognizant of its smartphone use than before.

So it’s precisely because of the new policy’s limited effectiveness that we, the students, have a huge role to play. Simply put, we have to go a step further and dig one level deeper in order to create a more technologically responsible community and culture. Though cellphone use is still a problem, the administrative policy has done its part to goad us into being more prudent with our devices.

The onus is now on us to affect this much needed change.

At this age, peer suggestion will have far more impact on students’ behavior than adult-imposed rules anyhow. Let’s face it, when the Dean’s office tells you to do something, it instantly becomes 110% less cool. But when your friends tell you to put your phone away because you’re being a jerk, you just might listen.

So the next time you see a classmate on their phone, engage them in a meaningful conversation. When your friend responds to your question with a slow head nod and a bland “uh-huh” because they’re too distracted by the DailyMail snapchat tile to actually hear you, call them out on it.

Because in the end, we — the students — are the only ones who can really change our community’s cellphone culture.

We are truly at an advantage to receive not only a privileged education, but a college-preparatory experience. Let’s not waste it on our phones.