From late 1980 to present, childhood has transitioned from play-based to screen-based. Millenials (like myself) grew up as the Internet began to proliferate, but you could only find what your searched for.
Beginning in 2010, algorithmically-generated content made scrolling on screens very compelling (2)
The presence of smartphones is different from most other technologies because they can PING you and call for your attention.
Even adults succumb to these pings, but adults were raised in a ping-free childhood
These pings are distracting. Even having a phone ON your desk, even if it's face-down, distracts your brain from whatever you're doing [3]. This takes your mental presence away from whatever you're actually trying to do.
Adult-led lessons provide information. This is a CBT insight: Experience, not Insight, is the key to emotional development.
Play-based childhood is about playing with others in the real-world. This is why I want our classroom to be a COMMUNITY. This will help them become socially-functional adults. [4]
Sitting along, watching Youtube videos, is disembodied. It is a play-blocker.
See Graph about people who "see their friends almost every single day"
As a math teacher, I cant really help kids with the physical play - especially since absence of adult supervision ('structure') is a key feature of their learning. I CAN help with emotional/social play - social cues, communcation, community acceptance, etc
Fear-based parenting in the Anglosphere: Declining sense of social cohesion.
the wearing smooth of a path in the brain, not the decisions of a rational consciousness.
Off-ramps beckoning for students' attention DECREASE cognitive capacity, AND decrease the social growth they can get by interacting with others.
I am not arguing that smartphones dont have useful features. My role as an education is to: