WSJ Tech News Briefing · Tuesday, September 1, 2026
A growing number of U.S. schools are implementing phone bans, with a recent study showing a significant decrease in personal phone use among students in schools that use lockable pouches. However, researchers have not yet observed measurable increases in grades or attention spans, suggesting that students may be shifting their focus to other devices like school-issued laptops.
“The percentage of students who used phones in class for personal reasons dropped from 61% to 13%.”
“And you would think that it would, right? You would think, okay, they're not looking at their phones, so they're going to be paying attention in class. But the researchers found is that they might just be shifting their attention to something else.”
“Because when other kids don't have their phones, and they don't feel the pressure to check social media, and they just feel more comfortable and more free to be able to talk to each other, and socialization usually tends to go up.”