Teens are on phones for 70 minutes at school, 300 minutes a day overall

Teenagers spend 70 minutes of the school day on their phones -- nearly all on social media, video and gaming apps -- according to a recent study, report Lauraine Langreo and Gina Tomko in Education Week. The average school day is 400 to 500 minutes.

The data came from teens who participated in the nationwide Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, and agreed to install a tracking app on their phones.

Students rarely used their smartphones for education or productivity apps, said lead researcher Jason Nagata, a University of California, San Francisco pediatrics professor. While some were on their phones during lunch or other breaks, rather than class time, that's troubling too, he said. "It’s important that kids, during breaks, have time to rest, to have face-to-face social interactions with their peers, and also just be outdoors and physically active.”

Overall, teenagers spend about five hours a day -- 300 minutes -- on smartphones, with nearly two hours of that on social media, researchers concluded. That doesn't leave much time for an after-school job, sports, a hobby or just hanging out with friends.

Forty-one percent of teenagers think smartphones should be banned during class, but only 17 percent back all-day bans, reports Pew Research Center.

In a separate survey, 74 percent of adults supported banning middle and high school students from using cellphones during class, and 44 percent backed all-day phone bans.

It's not enough to ban phones at school, argues Robert Pondiscio. Teenagers need active, real-world things to do -- playing sports, rehearsing with a band, working, volunteering, etc. -- after 3 pm.

Many are "languishing," spending "hours each day scrolling on their phones, often alone, often late into the night."

"Get a teenager off the couch and into something, and other good things often follow," he writes. We've seen "the erosion of the institutions that once pulled adolescents into adult worlds — jobs, churches, clubs, teams, and community organizations — and gave them a reason to show up, to be relied upon, and to matter."