Call It “Cellphone-Reduced” By Choice: A Teen’s Take

Posted on October 11, 2024

By Rustin Kharrazi ’23 and Erica Goldman, Deputy CEO

Amid both hand-wringing and celebration, cellphones are being banned (or their use heavily restricted) in one high school after another this year. For many, this seems like a radical new policy, both hard to enforce and to embrace. For us at the Bronfman Fellowship, it’s merely an extension of our decades-long “no screens” policy in effect during the intensive, immersive summer seminar for our Fellows, who are rising high school seniors. We’ve seen firsthand for years how getting phones out of their pockets helps young people connect more deeply and meaningfully to what’s in front of them, and we hear from the teens that while they were nervous about the policy in advance, they were deeply grateful for it later… but instead of opining from our professional perches, we asked a Fellow from our 2023 cohort to weigh in.

High School was never prepared for the rise of cellphones. When I was a senior at Palisades Charter High School in Los Angeles, I sat on the Board of Trustees as Associated Student Body President and the details of phone usage and school policy was a rising point of contention. As a charter school, Pali High maintained a largely liberal phone policy; however, as the L.A. school district began considering phone bans, faculty began to reconsider their approach. As for me, I love my phone more than anybody, but I found myself thinking back with fondness to the hands-off experience of my junior year summer, when I was a Bronfman Fellow. What I realized is, phone bans can work: when student empowerment is taken into account.

Before embarking on the intellectual and personal journey of the Bronfman Fellowship, I was truly in the dark about the program; I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I hoped it would be just as advertised—a transformative experience filled with learning, song, and community—and as I read through the Commitment and Participation Guidelines, it felt like a perfect fit for all my junior-year summer hopes and dreams. Until I reached Guideline #12: Distracting Devices: “In order to encourage conversation and camaraderie, we follow a strict ‘no screens’ policy.” My teenage, phone-obsessed heart fell to my stomach. A five-week intensive summer experience with complete strangers was daunting enough, but to face it without my most trusted companion? 

As Bronfman began, I quickly realized our phones were not rigidly taken from us as I expected. While we did turn in our devices to our counselors and faculty, a burning Google search, check of an important email, or time-sensitive conversation with a family member would warrant a reach into the “phone storage safe…” and yet, the Fellows rarely felt a need to do that. 

The reasonableness of the phone policy was instrumental in cultivating the self-empowered and grounded experience Bronfman envisioned for us. Instead of relying on policing us or dogmatically enforcing strict policy, positive peer pressure became part of the internal equation: peer pressure to relinquish our ties to the online world and experience the present moment. Putting our devices down was an embodied expression of our commitment to creating an environment that upheld attentiveness and full presence in the face-to-face conversations and thoughtful interactions we built together on Bronfman. There was no Tiktok scroll, YouTube video, or Instagram post more pertinent than the ideas, challenges, and shared stories of each other. 

The debate and rollout of phone bans across the country is clearly not a black-and-white issue. Telling a teenager they “can’t” do or have access to something, especially as ubiquitous as cellphones, is a surefire way to inspire defiance and pushback. When it comes to enacting these bans, I think a phone policy like Bronfman’s, one that invests trust in young people and deploys mutual “peer pressure” is the only sustainable course and will foster attentiveness naturally, unlike a brash ban. This same heart-in-stomach teenager can tell you, the payoff of a (mostly) phone-free learning experience can be worth the discomfort, hand-wringing, and presence it takes to get there.

The Bronfman Fellowship nurtures intellectually curious young Jews from Israel and North America to build a more dynamic and pluralistic future. Applications are open now for high school juniors. College students can apply for Campus Commons through Oct 21.

Rustin Kharrazi is now a first-year student at the University of Pennsylvania. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, he reflects here on “Phones, Fellows, and Forbiddence.”