Argumentative Essay Example: Cell Phones Should Be Banned in Schools

Do you ever sit in a class and realize that students aren’t paying attention because they are distracted by their cell phones? In free periods, just about every student sits on their phone with their head down. Why waste time when you can spend that free time doing school work or interacting with others? In other classes, students are missing out on information because they are on their cell phones. Cell phones are just setting up students for failure. Do we really want students to fail? No. Cell phones should be banned in schools. 

The main reason why students miss out on  information is because of cell phones. When students sit on their cell phones during class, it makes it very difficult for them to stay focused. Since the use of cell phones has increased, cyberbullying is also starting to increase. During the school day, if a student sees that they are left out of a group chat or sees a photo to which they compare themselves too, can make it hard for them to stay focused throughout the school day.

Along with students being distracted, cell phones have caused a decline in communication between students. Joe Clemet, a U.S. government teacher, and Matt Miles, also a teacher, have said that “free periods have deteriorated from lively talk among students and teachers to silent screen reading, each student in a little world.” Clement thought that he could bring back the lively talk of students during a free period class by restricting cell phones. Students responded by not showing up and going to a different free period class where cell phones weren’t  restricted. It has also been found that cell phone use increases the rate of depression. Face-to-face time with friends decreases depression. Creating a school environment without cell phones can help students have a face-to-face interaction with others. This will help create a healthy environment for students in school. 

Furthermore, cell phone use does not boost achievement. Students who are on their cell phones during class time, tend to perform worse on tests (usually a full letter grade or more). According to a study in 2017, some participants were told to keep their cell phones nearby, and the other participants were told to put their cell phones in a different room. Each participant was asked to perform a memory task. The participants with their cell phones did much worse than the participants who didn’t have their cell phones. For instance, in one of my classes, I see students who don’t even pick up their heads because they are on their cell phones. When it's time for them to take a test, they have no idea what they are doing. When they get their test grade back, they seem to not know why they performed so poorly. They performed so poorly because they were distracted by their cell phone. They don’t realize all the information they missed out on. Some schools have changed their cell phone policy and they saw an increase in test scores by 6.41%. This shows that cell phones are causing students to perform poorly. 

Finally, some schools believe that the use of cell phones should not be banned. Some schools have even worked cell phones into the daily curriculum. From text reminders to school apps, cell phones are making the learning system much easier. Even though cell phones are making the learning system easier,  there will be a higher chance that students will cheat, cell phones will still cause distractions, and there will still be less interaction. Even if cell phones are useful tools for the learning system, they still won’t solve these problems. 

In conclusion, cell phones create an unhealthy environment for students. They cause distractions, failure, and less interactions. Cell phones are an unhealthy distraction for students. They should be banned in schools.