Teachers can't compete with TikTok and YouTube, and they shouldn't try

Schools can ban smartphones, but teachers can't compete with devices designed to "keep young and old alike scrolling swiping and craving more," writes Dale Chu. "Every app, notification, and algorithm is designed to maximize engagement and minimize friction — to make effort feel optional. Learning, by contrast, runs on the opposite principle: It requires focus, patience, and struggle."

Teachers are told to make lessons more engaging, Chu writes. They're urged to use gimmicks such as "gamified lessons, digital bells and whistles" and "AI tutors that promise to 'make learning fun'." But they can't provide the hits of dopamine that make screens so addictive.

In Why education can never be fun, Daisy Christodoulou, a British educator and researcher, explains the problem: Entertainment apps are optimized for engagement, while teachers are trying for engagement and learning. They can't out-fun the fun app.

Some academics think "one of the reasons people are having less sex is because the online world is so compelling and addictive. If online content is so addictive that it can lead to adults having less sex, it’s probably fair to speculate that it will lead to kids studying less algebra."

Chu notes that "teen substance abuse, sexual activity, arrests and DUI fatalities have all been falling, suggesting that screens may be redirecting much — if not all — of their risk-taking impulses toward the dopamine hits provided by the online portals glued to their eyes."

Banning smartphones in school is the first step, writes Chu. But schools also have to help students learn to focus their attention.

Within the phone-free classroom, "students’ interactions should be deliberately shaped — encouraging attentive listening, supportive responses, and connections between contributions — so that peer engagement reinforces both focus and belonging," Chu writes. "Homework, studying, and even assessment practices must be rethought in the era of AI and grade inflation, so that students engage meaningfully rather than relying on shortcuts or hollow marks."