Take Phones Away from Students

Monday, June 3, 2024

This week from The Walrus:

It’s Time to Take Phones Away from Students

The spike in teen mental distress and disruptive behaviour will require extreme steps

BY IRA WELLS

A teenage girl stares at her smartphone in a black-and-white photo; the phone casts a technicolour glow.

Ontario’s new rules are an important start. They legitimate what parents and teachers have long suspected—that smartphones threaten both our kids’ education and their mental health. Children do not use cellular technology; the technology uses our children—by monetizing their data and converting their attention into advertising revenue. More than policy, we need a deep cultural aversion to kids using smartphones, especially at school. Phones in classrooms need to become, for my children’s generation, what smoking butts in the bathroom became for mine: it needs to be seen as gross. There is no shortage of reasons why.

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A group of protestors amid tall city buildings. One holds a sign that reads 'Make Canada Great Again.'

“It’s Like a Cult”: Breaking Free from the Far Right

A Toronto man’s journey from hate group “rally boy” to anti-fascism

BY TIMOTHY COOKE

A child kicks a ball in front of a mural of Nelson Mandela edged with graffiti.

South Africa Doesn’t Need More Heroes

This election year marks three decades since the country defeated apartheid. But we still haven’t fully healed

BY ZANELE MJI

Here’s a peek at some of the clues you need to solve our most recent crossword:

Raccoon, colloquially
Washington Black author Edugyan
Record player setting (abbr.)

The Fun, Frank, and Completely Miserable Poetry of Barfly

Michael Lista’s new collection of poems should come with a Health Canada warning

BY NICHOLAS BRADLEY

AI Is a False God

The real threat with super intelligence is falling prey to the hype

BY NAVNEET ALANG

Black and white photograph of Virginia Konchan against a purple background.

Second Nature

What about my flower nature? / Chrysanthemum, peony, rose?

BY VIRGINIA KONCHAN

Canada is bursting with talent and making waves on the world stage. Why is it important to share stories by Canadian artists and storytellers, not just within our borders but around the globe? And what does the future hold for the national cultural institutions that support the country’s creativity?

Join us in Ottawa, or online, at The Walrus Talks Canada’s Creative Power for a unique opportunity to hear directly from leaders of Canada’s key national cultural institutions as they tackle these pressing questions and share the extraordinary stories of cultivating Canada’s creative power.

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Samia Madwar
Senior Editor, The Walrus

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This newsletter was produced by CIBC Digital Journalism Fellow Makda Mulatu. Email us at letters@thewalrus.ca and your letter may be included in a future issue of The Walrus.