Writing with pen and paper. Hiking through the woods. Participating in engaging conversations. Researching just how much time a day you actually spend on your phone.
These are some of the activities Psychologist Shreya Hessler created for phone-obsessed students in a class offered for the first time last fall at Loyola University in Baltimore, according to a Washington Post article.
Hessler’s class was “part experimental, part research, part group play — aimed to address the worsening phone dependency that psychologists say is eroding young people’s ability to focus, sleep and regulate their emotions.”
At the start of the semester, students admitted to feeling “trapped in a phone prison,” the newspaper reports:
One student picked up her device 190 times a day. Another had downloaded 55 games. A third learned from an app that, at his current pace, he’d spend 32 years of his life staring at the screen …
Patrick Spychalla, the student who was initially projected to spend 32 years on his phone, told the class he turned to the device as a way to decompress. He would sit down when he returned home, intending to scroll for just 15 minutes.
“But then three hours go by,” he said, as many in the room nodded. “I need to recalibrate.”
Spychalla said he doesn’t see technology as the enemy, just a time sink, a view held by many classmates and experts who nonetheless consider the smartphone to be a tool to make life easier. Spychalla used to enjoy reading, but now struggles to finish a few pages without reaching for his phone.
At the conclusion of the semester, Spychalla created a self-discipline plan for his phone: He installed an app that limits his screen time and promised to stay off Instagram and TikTok for a seven-hour period every weekday, according to the report.
While many k-12 schools have moved to limit or ban cell phones, the same is not true for most colleges.
“This cohort of young adults is getting missed,” Hessler said. “They need opportunities to get off their phones.”
