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School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study

york.ac.uk

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Re: School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study

#391

Post by mattbee »

flexie wrote: post #338
card_zero wrote: post #177

> Interestingly, the research didn’t show significant improvements in cognitive ability; the phone ban group showed a modest 3% boost in working memory, and there were no improvements in sustained attention. Researchers suggest that these results might mean that changes in cognitive ability could take longer than the study period of 21 days to materialise. Notice how they had decided beforehand what they were going t…

By now, most schools in Denmark are banning phones during school hours. My kids' school did it two years ago. I have no idea if it has improved my kids' "cognitive skills", and frankly I don't care that much about their academic level. They are kids. They should run around, play and be happy, and then they will learn what they need. As a parent it's wonderful to know that the kids have this 5-7 hour break from the sc…

I think that's the norm in UK secondaries too. My 11yo is allowed to take his phone to school for but policy is it stays switched off, in the locker, until the end of the school day.

Re: School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study

#392

Post by Tade0 »

graemep wrote: post #337
blitzar wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They try it every year in the summer. It has significant negative effects on all the parents involved.

I know that is a joke, but it has enough truth in it to be a sad comment on a society in which parents do not enjoy time with their kids.

They do, but to an extent. Kids are kids and want to do kid stuff, especially when the alternative is dull, but necessary work like chores.

My daughter likes to help and we as parents encourage her to, but for us it just means more work.

Re: School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study

#393

Post by doble-io »

supersrdjan wrote: post #364

Do you ever get periods of time where you're just not interested in your phone? Periods of time when you don't even feel the compulsion to unlock your phone and scroll, so there's no real willpower required to abstain from it? That's the state of mind I want to be at. I don't want to have to lock away the phone from myself or unplug my router. I do get those streaks of no doom scrolling from time to time, perhaps for…

I really hope you get what you want the way you describe, but for everyone else reading this: don't dismiss hacks like unplugging your router.

Everyone should use external control (aka stimulus control [1]) more shamelessly. Stimulus control is a well-known technique that gets the job done for day-to-day problems like "phone compulsion."

When you ask what willpower is, people think of "magical mental points." Common knowledge suggests that needing external control (like putting away your phone) means you lack willpower, spirit, maturity, or you're-not-going-to-make-it™. Like there are two opposite camps: willpower/rational decision making/system II [2] vs external control. This is unwise and is not supported scientifically.

Let me explain in CS-like terms: If life is a search problem, the action space is insanely enormous. Sitting in my office, I could jump, eat a candy bar, look at my phone, throw my computer, play the cello, sing, or work. The first "pruning" is simply availability - I won't play the cello since I don't have one here.

The same applies to distractions. We live in a digital environment where accessing distractions costs nearly zero. So maintaining cognitive hygiene through stimulus control (switching off your router, putting away your phone) is good.

Sadly, willpower is what common knowledge sets as the good/moral/mature behavior: if you need to put away your phone, you are less valid or whatever culture-specific narrative you're into. Ignore those ideas and keep your mind clean: put your router on fire if that's what you need at first. You will get better.

[1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/stimulus-con... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow#Two_sy...

Re: School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study

#394

Post by bilbo0s »

subroutine wrote: post #384
bilbo0s wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did suggest a new experiment, one lasting longer than 21 days to test their hypothesis. Hypothesis -> proposed experiment -> results -> questions evoked by results -> new hypothesis -> new proposed experiment MOST importantly, they didn’t fake any results and went where the data took them. This is the kind of science that has been falling out of fashion for the last few decades in favor of researchers who work b…

They could have included the obvious (but probably unwanted) alternative hypothesis: Researchers suggest that these results might mean that changes in cognitive ability could take longer than the study period of 21 days to materialize, or access to devices has a positive effect on attention offsetting the effects of sleep on attention . It's probably unlikely but it is an obvious possibility.

So is the possibility that attention is an emergent genetic trait. There are many, many alternative explanations. You are lamenting the exclusion of your preferred alternative explanation, but the researchers need to choose one and look further along that branch.

The idea of open science is that other teams would be free to explore plausible alternative hypotheses. Some team might explore yours. Another might dig into my idea about the behavior’s relationship to genetics. And so on.

This is the method by which we move ourselves forward. And it’s easy to see how that effort is hampered by the practice of data tampering and other shenanigans. Which this team did not engage in, even when part of there hypothesis wasn’t supported by their data.

This team deserves a “Bravo!”

Re: School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study

#396

Post by [deleted] »

bdangubic wrote: post #191
card_zero wrote: post #177

> Interestingly, the research didn’t show significant improvements in cognitive ability; the phone ban group showed a modest 3% boost in working memory, and there were no improvements in sustained attention. Researchers suggest that these results might mean that changes in cognitive ability could take longer than the study period of 21 days to materialise. Notice how they had decided beforehand what they were going t…

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study

#397

Post by agile-gift0262 »

When I see all these "phone ban" experiments, I always wonder, is the phone that's the issue, or is it the apps/websites tailored for engagement (a.k.a addiction)?

Maybe instead of banning kids from using phones, they should consider banning companies from making their apps addictive on purpose.

Re: School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study

#398

Post by jensensbutton »

ANewFormation wrote: post #389
jader201 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure if you have kids, but I’m not sure making the choice to ostracize your kids is one they’d thank you for later. And, certainly not all kids would. It very much depends on the kid / the impact said ostracism would have.

The ostracization is a strawman. A few good friends (or even just one) is, imo, going to provide far more fulfillment than a million digital friends. And when living in an appropriate place to raise children (playgrounds, etc near housing) it's super easy to meet other parents. And, in my experience at least, a rather large percent are also against 'digitizing' their kids. Making friends the old fashioned way, and no…

> And when living in an appropriate place to raise children (playgrounds, etc near housing) it's super easy to meet other parents.

Ah, so this yet another aspect of health that one needs a certain amount of money to enjoy.

Re: School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study

#399

Post by supersrdjan »

doble-io wrote: post #393
supersrdjan wrote: post #364

Do you ever get periods of time where you're just not interested in your phone? Periods of time when you don't even feel the compulsion to unlock your phone and scroll, so there's no real willpower required to abstain from it? That's the state of mind I want to be at. I don't want to have to lock away the phone from myself or unplug my router. I do get those streaks of no doom scrolling from time to time, perhaps for…

I really hope you get what you want the way you describe, but for everyone else reading this: don't dismiss hacks like unplugging your router. Everyone should use external control (aka stimulus control [1]) more shamelessly. Stimulus control is a well-known technique that gets the job done for day-to-day problems like "phone compulsion." When you ask what willpower is, people think of "magical mental points." Common…

Nono, I specifically mentioned no willpower required. Like in your example of available actions, I also have zero desire to jump out of the window, so don’t have to expend any willpower to resist it. Similarly, on my good days, I don’t feel attracted to my phone. What do you say about that?

Re: School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study

#400

Post by HPsquared »

fc417fc802 wrote: post #250
HPsquared wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of inertia and social pressure in both phone use and language choice.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to get at. I doubt the children (or even their parents for the most part) realized the extent of the impact. Now that they're aware they have the option to attempt to mitigate it if they so choose. Of course they might try and fail (second case) or consciously choose to tolerate the downsides for some perceived gain (third case). As to language choice, inertia can be a perfectly…

I mean 's hard for an individual to go against what the rest of their peers are doing. The same applies to schoolkids as for programmers. There are a lot of costs to going against the crowd.
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