The Sydney school students helping each other stay off their phones

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The Sydney school students helping each other stay off their phones

By Christopher Harris

Arjun Vishnu, 16, wasn’t exactly sure why he was so addicted to his phone. “It was probably … it was the ping. Whenever I heard the ping, my brain instantly thought, ‘I need to check it’.”

    Going cold turkey would be foolish, he thought. As would the idea of going it alone. “I did it with my parents, I said ‘take my phone away during this and this time’ – that really helped.”

    Students from Knox Grammar and Ravenswood Nell Stallworthy, Hugo Walters, Kaitlyn Ayre, Arjun Vishnu, and Leah Nagamori.

    Students from Knox Grammar and Ravenswood Nell Stallworthy, Hugo Walters, Kaitlyn Ayre, Arjun Vishnu, and Leah Nagamori.Credit: Janie Barrett

    Like most private schools, Knox Grammar has a no-phone policy. With Ravenswood School for Girls, Knox hosted a wellbeing student conference this month for 200 teenagers from more than 30 other schools.

    In the conference, designed for high school students who must navigate a world where social media is ubiquitous, pupils were given practical steps to bolster their wellbeing as they grapple with pressure of HSC exams.

    Ravenswood student Kaitlyn Eyre, 18, said device use was one of the biggest issues affecting young people, and it had hindered her ability to get enough sleep.

    “People need to know when to stop,” she said. “I used to go on my phone a lot more but now I have a set time when I say, ‘9.30pm, no more phone’ ... It is hard, but once you get that habit down, you can easily keep going.”

    Knox and Ravenswood have a curriculum based on a branch of psychology that does not focus on what is clinically wrong but promotes wellbeing and resilience. Students learn scientifically backed skills about the importance of quality social relationships, exercise and how nutrition feeds our brains.

    It aims to equip students for life beyond school – being able to notice when they are overwhelmed, to know when to seek help, to understand thinking traps and how to interrupt them.

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    Macquarie University adjunct fellow Dr Danielle Einstein, who works as a clinical psychologist, said teenagers and parents are increasingly grappling with the mental health effects of increased digital device use. A ban on mobile phone use in public high schools will come into effect in October in the state’s public schools.

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    “The research shows sleep is one of the major ways devices impact mental health. If someone is on their phone late at night, they’re missing their sleep window,” she said.

    “It can contribute to social anxiety if you’re avoidant of eye contact or if you feel a bit anxious and turn to your phone instead of listening to and looking at the person you’re with.”

    Knox student Hugo Walters, 18, said one of the biggest impediments to young people’s mental health was the sheer pressure they felt was placed upon them. He believes face-to-face interactions are key to wellbeing.

    “More broadly, it is about how you promote positive connections,” he said. “It is all about not being glued to your phone but actually being able to talk to your friends and actually interact with the people who are in front of you.”

    It is one thing to tell adolescents to get off their phones but quite another to ask them to navigate the awkwardness of social interactions, especially when, as UK teachers noted this month, their peers have shorter attention spans.

    Ravenswood principal Anne Johnstone said one way was helping guide students as they dealt with being bored or even uncomfortable without social media.

    “It needs to be taught – we can be so caught up in the world of stress and ‘me, me, me’,” she said. “Schools can create environments to be more in the moment, even if the conversation doesn’t flow as naturally.

    “We can teach them to be curious — to be interested about life and you can approach other people with a mindset of ‘I am going to be a bit more curious about things’ and realising there are ways you can find common ground with someone.”

    Knox headmaster Scott James said the conference where students educated their peers in wellbeing strategies was about providing a well-rounded education.

    “It sparked meaningful conversations and encouraged students to prioritise their mental, emotional and physical health,” he said.

    University of Sydney’s behavioural psychologist Dr James Donald said there was growing evidence device use was affecting sleep.

    “That has effects not just on your psychological state but also on your physiology – for example, you’re likely to compensate for feeling tired by overeating.”

    He said research showed boys spent more time gaming while girls were more likely to be on Instagram, which had led to an increase in teen depression.

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    “It is more the extreme end of the spectrum when people are becoming really dependent and vulnerable to the social status they get online, and often as a substitute for not having that rich social support in their offline life,” he said.

    He recommended parents don’t act as police officers to restrict device use but rather worked with teenagers to manage how much time they spent on phones.

    “I just don’t think that enough parents get what is happening to their children when they’re given free rein on social platforms,” he said.

    “If you don’t set boundaries, the executives of Google, Apple and Instagram will set them for you.”

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