Teachers, parents brainstorm ways to tackle teen cellphone addiction in Rappahannock schools

Parents, teachers and community leaders gathered last Thursday at the Rappahannock County High School (RCHS) to discuss the effects of cellphone and social media use on children and brainstorm ways to combat them. 

The community discussion took place after a one-hour live streamed conversation between Virginia first lady Suzanne Youngkin and Jonathan Haidt, New York University professor and author of “The Anxious Generation.” Haidt’s book explores the long-term effects that social media and electronics use is having on Generation Z, the first generation to have full, mostly unmonitored access to the internet throughout childhood. 

High school principal Mary Jane Boynton led the discussion with a small but impassioned crowd, which centered around how parents and teachers can work together to reverse children’s dependence on social media and cellphones, in and out of school. 

Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Garcia was also there to answer questions from parents about how to better monitor their children online, and keep them safe from internet predators. 

Boynton said students are adjusting to new school cellphone policies this year where they are only allowed to use them at lunch — a rule that may change down the line, she said. She stressed to parents not to “enable” their children by texting them while they are in school.

Lynnie Genho, a mother of five, said cellphone addiction is not something that can be effectively changed individually, and that parents need to come together and all agree to limit their children’s use. 

“You can refuse to give your kid a phone for that age, and they will be the weirdo,” Genho said. “But not every family has the same rules . . . we need to teach them responsible uses of this versus just turning them loose.”

Jackson Supervisor Donna Comer, another public school parent, suggested a challenge between RCHS and a neighboring school, to see who could reduce screen time the most, and that the competitive aspect could get kids started in the right direction of limiting their use. 

“What can we start doing to start our little contribution to turning the ship around?” Comer said.

Genho brought up the idea of starting community dinners, where cellphones and similar topics could be discussed. 

Haidt and Youngkin discussed startling mental health statistics in young girls and loneliness and unemployment rates in young men, which he says correlates directly to the spread of smartphones, social media and overprotective parenting common in the early 2010s. 

Haidt said generally, parents of Gen Z were more focused on protecting their children from the danger of the outside world — which he said is mostly just a perceived danger, as crime rates now are as low as the 1960s —and not the digital world. He said development is very dependent on independence and risk, something most kids do not experience now.

“Beginning in the 1990s, we Americans began to freak out. We stop trusting our neighbors. We’re afraid that if you let your kid go to the supermarket, they’ll get kidnapped . . . We start locking our kids up, not giving them independence.” Haidt said. “Then there’s this incredible series of technological changes that happens in a very very short time . . . and no one’s going out to play anymore.”

Haidt recommends not allowing children to have a cellphone until age 13, and not allowing access to any social media until 16. He emphasized the “restoration of play-based childhood” and independence, which he said are pivotal to a child’s development.

Haidt also praised Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s recent executive order calling for “cellphone-free education” in all Virginia schools by January 2025. He said this is a bipartisan issue, and that many people are seeing the need for a cultural change around cellphones. 

“I think [cellphones and social media overuse] is the top issue we face, because we’re talking not just mental illness . . . It’s a vast destruction of human potential and human capital. This is a gigantic problem, but it’s incredible to me how much change there has been in the last few months where we are at the tipping point,” Haidt said. “When I see states like Virginia acting, I think maybe we can do this. Maybe we can do something [about it].”

Sign up for Rapp News Daily, a free newsletter delivered to your email inbox every morning.