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94% of students use cell phones while at school
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025

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Scientists from the University of Haifa conducted a study and found that 94% of Israeli high school students use their mobile phones to access social networks during school hours. Only 4% report that they listen to the teacher during lessons instead of surfing the Internet.
It was also noted that in classes taught by lenient teachers who established normal contact with students, phones were used less often. If the teacher was strict, everything happened the other way around.
"Students used mobile phones for different purposes: to access the Internet, social networks, to listen to music, to take photos, and to send SMS and multimedia messages," the authors of the study say. "Our research shows that in any class there are at least a few people who use mobile phones during classes."
Read also: What to do if your child has no friends?
Despite the fact that the vast majority of schoolchildren have mobile phones, their use has never been analyzed.
The new study by experts aims to determine the scope, frequency and types of use of mobile phones, as well as the age at which children begin to use them. In addition, the experts were interested in the presence of a relationship between the use of mobile phones and the type of discipline that the teacher sets.
A team of scientists led by Dr. Dana Daniel conducted a study involving 591 students in grades 9-12 and 144 teachers of various subjects in three Jewish schools.
It turned out that 94% of schoolchildren regularly use phones and the most visited sites are Facebook, YouTube and file sharing services.
About 95% of students take photos or text messages instead of listening to the teacher, distracting themselves from studying the subject. 93% listen to music during classes, and 91% can even talk on their mobile phones.
The experts also tried to find out how often teenagers use phones in class (from “never” to “constantly”). It turned out that the average student uses a mobile phone in every other class.
The multifunctionality of the phone and the use of a number of these functions constantly distracts children from their studies, which cannot but affect their success and achievements.
The authors of the paper also state that “the potential damage caused by using phones during lessons casts a shadow on the entire education system, the atmosphere in the classroom, prevents the child from acquiring new, necessary knowledge, and also forces the teacher to transfer the time allotted for the subject and be distracted by disciplining the class.”
Age, it turns out, also affects the frequency of mobile phone use during lessons. For example, tenth-graders used phones more actively than twelfth-graders.
It was found that the gender of the teacher does not play any role, but experienced teachers can create the right atmosphere in the classroom and restore discipline, so with such teachers, children use the phone, but much less often than usual.
The research data shows that using mobile phones during classes has become a common practice.