Stony Brook University's research, published in JAMA Pediatrics, is the first to accurately paint a picture of adolescent phone behavior by using a third party app to monitor usage over four months in 2023. Previous studies have relied on parent surveys or self-reported estimates. 

"That's pretty alarming … It's too much, not only because of the missed learning opportunity in the classroom," said researcher Lauren Hale, sleep expert and professor at Stony Brook's Renaissance School of Medicine. 

"They're missing out on real life social interaction with peers, which is just as valuable for growth during a critical period of one's life," she told The 74. 

Hale and the other researchers' early findings come from 117 teens for which they had school data, just one slice of a pool from over 300 participants, which will be analyzed and used to consider how phone usage impacts sleep, obesity, depression, and other outcomes. 

Teens most often used messaging, Instagram and video streaming platforms. While most spent about 26 minutes on Instagram, in one extreme case, a student was on the app for 269 minutes—nearly 5 hours—during the school day.

Data reveal particular groups of students are using their phones more than their peers: Girls and older kids, aged 16 to 18, spent a half hour above the average 1.5 hours; and Latino and multiracial students spent on average 15 minutes above average. 

Additionally, though researchers cannot hypothesize as to why based on the descriptive data, kids who have one or more parents with a college degree used smartphones less during the school day. 

The findings are particularly concerning given young people missed key social years with peers during the pandemic, the impact of which is felt in ways big and small, like being hesitant to work with peers in groups.

Teachers in contact with Hale since research went public in early February said of the 1.5 hour average, "that's too low an estimate. They think we underestimated."

Los Angeles is among several districts with plans to institute a cellphone ban, though such bans are inconsistently implemented and new research from the U.K. suggests bans alone do not impact grades or wellbeing.

"These results are consistent, supportive evidence of anecdotal stories from across the country about kids missing out on learning and social opportunities. [They] can help justify efforts to provide a coherent smartphone policy for schools," said Hale, adding that such policy should not be left up to individual teachers to enforce.