Smartphones should be forbidden at school

By Sakina Komuro / Special to The Delta 

Smartphones are useful, but they should be forbidden at school because they can be harmful to students at the same time. 

Smartphones have made our lives better in many ways, such as looking up stuff, making to-do lists and phone calls. On the other hand,  smartphones also keeps students from focusing on their school work.

In many classes of mine, people are either on their phone and laptops to do stuff and they don’t listen to their professors. It is very wasteful of time and money since students pay lots of money for their tuition.

Also, using a smartphone in class not only distracts the person who is using the phone, keeping them from focusing on the classes, but also people who are sitting around them. The lights and motion from the someones’ smartphone screen make it hard to concentrate on class. 

 Also, it is very sad that even when people are having dinner at the cafeteria with their friends, they are into their phones and don’t try to enjoy spending time with their friends. The cafeteria is supposed to be a place people hang out, make friends and enjoy conversation with friends. 

What teachers can do to take students away from their smartphone while taking class is giving extra credits to students who hand their phone over to their teachers. I highly recommend this way. In one of my literature classes, the professor practices this system and I have never seen students touching their phones in the class. Even though the professor gives students only one credit for handing out phones, this is working a lot. 

Also, I see many professors allow students to use their phones while they are teaching class. Students usually stop using their phones when they are pointed out, thus, professors should point out when students are on their phones. 

What students can do not to be distracted by their phone is turning notifications off while in class. I see the majority of people using their phones and being distracted by them in class do not turn the notifications off.

People tend to check their phone when the notification sounds, therefore, putting the phone away and turning the notifications off would be a good way not to be distracted by phones and focus on classes.