Under the desk: New UW study sheds light on student phone use during school

It’s no secret teens spend a lot of time in front of screens – something like eight and a half hours daily, according to a 2021 survey.

A new study from the University of Washington School of Medicine found that they also rack up the time during school hours. From 2022 to 2024, researchers measured teenagers’ phone use during the school day to find they’re on their phones for over an hour during school, on average. A quarter of the 640 teenagers in the study used their phones for more than an hour and a half.

“That means that about 25% of teenagers are spending 25% of the school day on their phones,” said lead author Dimitri Christakis, a UW pediatrics professor. “They’re not spending it on educational apps, as some might question; they’re spending it on social media apps.”

Study participants downloaded an application on their phones for researchers to track when they used it during the school day and what they used it for. The most-used categories included social media apps like Snapchat or TikTok, video applications like YouTube and mobile games like Roblox or Pokémon GO. The two least-used categories were “education” and “productivity.”

The study is the largest of its kind that objectively measures kids’ phone use during the day, Christakis said. The other has a smaller scope that Christakis also authored.

“The school environment is kind of an interesting and important one because it’s a place where students are present and expected to be engaged so they can learn,” Christakis said. “It’s also a place where they have an opportunity to socialize with people in real time and space. Those opportunities, unfortunately, are not as frequent as they used to be, and we should take opportunities to maximize them.”

Schools are also appropriate settings for cellphone bans and restrictions, Christakis said. Most schools around Washington have embraced a ban in someway, with anecdotal evidence pointing to students engaging more with their studies and with each other.

Spokane Public Schools started last school year with stricter rules that limited phone use to lunch and between classes for high schoolers, while other grade levels are expected to keep devices off and away during the school day.

Phones are an ever-present part of kids’ school routines, even through the ban. Students at Shadle Park High School estimated that the studies’ findings likely ring true for some of their peers.

“I do see kids obsessed that are always on it, but you don’t get a whole lot of kids that do that,” said Shadle Park freshman Maya Roscoe. “It’s more about, like, they’ll just check it once in a while.”

Sophomore Eden Heitsch and junior Jackson Hite said if they had to estimate, they’re probably on their phone for about an hour during school. They said they’re usually on their phones for most of their half-hour lunch break, when it’s allowed.

“In that 30 minutes, all you want to do is decompress on your phone,” Eden said.

The two also said they use their phones during class, both as educational tools when allowed by their teacher and in less permissible ways, like “during a boring class,” Eden said, when she can’t help but steal a quick scroll through her socials.

Jackson’s phone catches his attention each time his phone buzzes with a notification, he said. It’s taken him a school year to adjust to his school’s policy; last year, an administrator confiscated his phone after he checked it “one too many times,” he said.

“It was just, like, second nature,” Jackson said. “I didn’t think about it when I just went down and I checked.”

Christakis is an advocate for a “bell to bell” ban on phones so students aren’t distracted from work and from socializing, he said.

“We often ask ourselves, what’s being displaced when kids are on their phones?” Christakis said. “In the case of school, it’s obvious what’s being displaced. It’s either time learning and focusing on learning in a classroom or time socializing in person with your peers.”