Mobile phones as life and thought companions
Xiao, Z
Date: 8 April 2019
Article
Journal
Research Papers in Education
Publisher
Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Publisher DOI
Abstract
According to adults who ban adolescent interactions with
mobile phones in Chinese high schools, students ‘addicted’ to mobile
phones lack will power and schools without a restrictive policy on
mobile phone use among students on campus are ‘poor’ in quality.
Upon analysis of data from 45 semi-structured interviews with secondyear ...
According to adults who ban adolescent interactions with
mobile phones in Chinese high schools, students ‘addicted’ to mobile
phones lack will power and schools without a restrictive policy on
mobile phone use among students on campus are ‘poor’ in quality.
Upon analysis of data from 45 semi-structured interviews with secondyear high school students from urban, rural, and Tibetan regions of
China, this study finds that the consequences of mobile phone use are
not always pre-determined. Teens do not merely use their phones to
connect; they also treat them as ‘life’ and ‘thought’ companions, which
they invest with feelings and thoughts that animate life experiences
and catalyse healthy development. The wholesale ban on mobile phone
use in school is destined to fail and risks blinding parents and
educators to potential benefits the technology has to offer, for it
overlooks the value of mobile phones as objects of ‘passion’ and
‘reason’, ignores the opportunity to engage with teens who make
visible online the problems they struggle with offline, and disregards
the need for empathic imagination.
School of Education
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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