‘I’d just delayed the inevitable’: what I really learned going without a mobile phone for a day

Banning phones in schools might help children concentrate in class but how will it impact their overall relationship with devices?

Tuesday started like any other: before I was even really awake, I looked at my phone. Weather. Transphobes. Did Anybody Famous Die? Potential Polly Pocket/Scrabble/Settlers of Catan movies. But unlike other days, I then put it in a drawer.

I’m not good at regulating my behaviour. This is obvious to anyone who has ever watched me order chocolate on the internet. So it was with both fear and curiosity that I accepted a challenge from my editor to experience a day without my phone. The challenge was in response to phone bans hitting public high schools around Australia, something Unesco has called for globally in an effort to reduce distraction, cyberbullying and improve learning.

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