Well-being
Technology and teenage mental health Andrea Saxel explains Cranleigh’s new mobile phone policy for Years 9 and 10 At Cranleigh we embrace technology: after all, our pupils will live and work with it all their lives and we would not wish to disadvantage them in any way. This is the reasoning behind our decision to give all our pupils iPads, and to educate them in using them properly so that they can enhance their learning. We will be able to control which apps they have on these iPads and will be able to monitor the nature of their usage too. We are really looking forward to this exciting new phase. However, as a school, we have watched with growing concern the effect smart phone technology is having on our pupils, in particular on their wellbeing. Much current research is investigating that impact, but in schools, particularly boarding schools where the pupils are with us all day, the evidence of that impact is right in front of our eyes. From what we have observed in recent years, there are some clear areas of concern. The addictive nature of this technology is an issue and, if we are honest with ourselves, these days most adults fall victim to this addiction to some extent. However, since smart phone technology is a relatively recent phenomenon for us, one we did not grow up with, we are able to have at least some perspective. This generation of young people is not so lucky. There is no doubt that the level of addiction that some of them are starting to experience is harmful, and we need to do something to tackle it. Smartphone technology and social media apps were not designed for children, but they were designed to be addictive. Society imposes age limits on other addictive substances, such as alcohol, for good reason, but although Facebook has an age requirement, it is not enforceable.
Sleep, or a lack of it, is becoming a problem for our children. If they find it difficult to fall asleep, or if they wake up in the night, they will automatically reach for their phone if they have access to it. They are also constantly disturbed by texts and notifications, often through the night, and there is a danger that we are breeding a generation that suffers from sleep difficulties. Our children have never been under so much pressure to be a certain way, to look a certain way or to have a certain lifestyle, and no matter how much we try to educate them, they are still affected by how ‘perfect’ everyone’s social media presence is. This ‘Perfection Issue’ cannot be healthy for them at all. The social pressure is overwhelming for our children at times. The sheer number of Snapchats, Whatsapps and Instagram posts that are sent each day is staggering, and the pressure to respond with increasingly witty comments is simply too much. Pupils’ ability to concentrate is being affected. Too often I have witnessed pupils working on something on their own, in their own time, and within a few minutes, they are picking up their phone, either to answer a message or because they get slightly stuck or bored. The impact of this must surely be a negative one. One of the most important skills young people need to develop is the ability to concentrate on a problem or a piece of work for a period of time without constant interruption. In short, the more we looked at the evidence before us, we became certain that a combination of these factors was starting to have an impact on the mental health and wellbeing of some of our pupils, and that we needed to do something to control this. In the end, after much discussion, we decided that delaying
Spring 2018
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