I went to high school in the age of smartphones. When I entered the 9th grade, I entered with a purple slide phone in my backpack. After the first three weeks of school, it became abundantly clear that I needed to get an iPhone as soon as possible; not because of the social stigma of not having a smartphone, although that was definitely present. I needed one because my teachers constantly asked us to use our phones to complete necessary assignments. Virtually all of these assignments involved searching the internet, which I couldn’t use on my phone. And so it came to pass sometime in September of 2014, I finally got my coveted iPhone 4 because I couldn’t do my schoolwork without it. 

Long gone are the days when smartphones were viewed as convenient educational tools. Kids are more dependent on their phones than ever, and school districts are doing whatever it takes to get them off of their phones, including locking them up for the entire school day.