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Phones at School: Less Learning and More Loneliness
Laptops aren’t great either
| Smartphone and laptop use during the school day is increasingly linked to lower academic performance and rising feelings of loneliness among teens. Research across 36 countries shows that students who spend more time on devices for leisure during school experience sharper declines in test scores and greater social isolation. These findings highlight the growing need for schools to limit non educational device use to better support learning and wellbeing. With Australia leading the way on mobile phone restrictions in schools and social media age limits, OLM is proud to be at the forefront by introducing a device free Year 7, a decision grounded in research and centred on supporting student wellbeing. |
This article is written by Jean M. Twenge (17 March 2026)
Author of 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World (2025), iGen (2017), and Generations (2023, paperback 2025) and professor of psychology at San Diego State University.
The first evidence we had for the impact of smartphones and social media was for teens’ lives outside of school. Teens were spending less time hanging out with their friends, less time sleeping, and more time on screens, often holed up alone in their bedrooms. That’s not a good formula for mental health, and sure enough, teen depression doubled as smartphones and social media took over after 2012.
But what about during school, where teens spend more than 30 hours a week? Those hours, too, are filled with technology. Sometimes that’s for truly educational purposes — they’re working on an essay for English class, reading a science textbook in an online library, or taking notes in class. But not always. Even school issued laptops often allow access to YouTube and streaming (like Netflix, Disney+), allowing students to sit in the back of class and watch endless hours of entertainment. Others play games. Personal smartphones are also a huge distraction: A recent analysis found that American teens spend more than an hour using their phones during the school day, and almost none of that time is spent on educational activities. Instead, teens scroll through social media, watch videos, and play games. Some take videos of their peers without permission, or sneak off to the bathroom to watch TikToks.
Thus, teens are spending about 20% of their time at school not focusing on schoolwork or talking to their peers. That may be one reason why standardised test scores in maths, reading, and science have declined since 2012 and why students have increasingly reported feeling lonely at school. Electronic devices are both distracting in the classroom and isolating in the lunchroom. What impact does that have on teens’ learning and on their mental health?
In a recent paper, my students and I looked into these issues in the PISA dataset of 15 and 16 year olds around the world. In 36 countries, students consistently took standardized tests in math, reading, and science between 2006 and 2022. In 2022, they were asked how much time they spent using electronic devices (like phones, tablets, and laptops) for leisure purposes (like social media or entertainment) during the school day. This varied quite a bit across countries, with students in some countries spending hardly any time on devices for leisure during the school day, and others spending an average of more than two hours.
In countries where students spent a lot of time using devices for leisure during the school day, test scores plummeted between 2012 and 2022. In countries where they spent less time, test scores merely slid. Thus there was a significantly larger decline in scores in the countries where students spent more time using devices for fun during school hours (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Scores on standardized tests of math, reading, and science for 15 and 16 year olds in 36 countries, by low or high use of electronic devices for leisure during the school day. Note: Controlled for GDP per capita. Source: Twenge (2025) using data from PISA.
The consequences of device use aren’t just academic; they are also social and emotional because device use has displaced students talking to each other during lunch and breaks. In countries where students spend more time using devices for leisure during the school day, the percentage of students who agreed “I often feel lonely at school” rose steeply, with the increase much less pronounced in countries with less leisure device use during school (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Feelings of loneliness at school among 15 and 16 year olds in 36 countries, by low or high use of electronic devices for leisure during the school day. Note: Controlled for GDP per capita. Source: Twenge (2025) using data from PISA.
These results show the twin impacts of the leisure use of devices during the school day: declines in test scores and increases in feelings of loneliness at school. They are another piece of evidence suggesting that schools should restrict students’ use of smartphones from bell to bell — not just during class, but also during lunch, breaks, and passing periods. A school where students are talking to each other is less lonely.
Of course, phones are only part of the problem. The next step is to lock down laptops and tablets so they, too, aren’t being used for social media and entertainment during the school day. Or, especially for younger students, it may be time to go back to paper and pencil — old-school, yes, but with the bonus of no binge-watching YouTube videos during chemistry class. Some states are considering bills outlawing or restricting the use of devices for elementary school students, a welcome step. Sticking with the status quo means lower test scores and more lonely students — not the outcome any of us want.