ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — Back to school is in full swing here in Southeast Michigan, and teachers are on the front lines of the battle between keeping students' attention and their increasing frequent companions – smart phones.
The University of Michigan's Marsal Family School of Education, clocking that growing struggle, decided to take a unique approach to solving it with their digital wellness program.
It paired U-M students with over 50 Ann Arbor middle schoolers with the goal of empowering the kids to choose to put the phones down.
"It’s like the smaller the screen, the bigger the problem," Chris Thomas, the father of Oliver Thomas, a seventh grader at Scarlett Middle School, said.
"I was on my phone 24/7. I wouldn't go to sleep at all. It was still like I need it, I can't live without it," Hidaoyah Harper, another seventh grader, added.
"I'll mostly be texting or I'll be on YouTube," Oliver said.
Chris is seeing that phone use bleed into school hours. He said about half of the sixth graders have access to personal devices and by the time they're in eighth grade, almost all do.
Those devices are distracting to the students, even when put on silent or in lockers.
"But there's also that like feeling we all get sometimes when our cell phone leaves our person and you're like, ahhhh," Chris said.
Apps don't just distract users. U-M Clinical Professor Dr. Liz Kolb said they're made to be addictive.
"There's kind of this pull-down effect like a slot machine, you refresh it," Kolb said.
Kolb said to better balance student screen time, they developed a digital wellness program. In April 2024, 52 middle school students from Scarlett, Tapan and Clague middle schools took part, with 11 U-M students leading the weekly meetings through the end of the school year.
"We want students to make more safe choices online. We want them to also recognize their emotions when they're using digital devices," Kolb said. "The middle schoolers don’t necessarily want to learn from the adults."
Those students agree.
"U of M students, they're like not technically adults, but they're still like children just like us," Hidaoyah said.
If this were Yelp, the students would give a five-star review.
"It went amazing. My attention span was like horrible, but now, it's like way better I can focus more on in class without being like I have to check my phone every five minutes," Hidaoyah added.
They also say they can spot when they and their friends need to step away from the screens.
"It like recommends things that it thinks you will like next and you obviously will like next, and then you want to keep finding things," Sera Bergman, a seventh grader at Scarlett, said.
"With my friends when we're losing one of them gets mad so I just tell him to calm down," Kaleb Rampersad, another Scarlett seventh grader, added.
The students are also learning lessons about checking sources before hitting share, and the very important item – whatever you post online now can affect you in the future.
"I kind of knew like everything you do could come back to bite you when you're trying to get a job, but I didn't realize how much it matters," Oliver said.
