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Emma Willis admitted she suffered significant withdrawal symptoms and anxiety after giving up her smartphone for 21 days.
of love is blind uk The presenter, 48, has given up his mobile phone as part of an experiment for his upcoming Channel 4 show. Swipe: Schools banning smartphones.
Willis, along with her husband Matt and a group of Year 8 students from Stanway School in Colchester, Essex, traded their smartphones for brick phones with no apps or internet.
talk good morning ukWillis said: “I was very naive. We turned in our cell phones, but obviously we needed some form of communication, so I was using a brick phone for three weeks.
She continued: “The first four days, to be honest, I had a lot of withdrawal and anxiety because I felt so out of control, everything was on my phone.”
Willis explains how phones with access to social media and other addictive apps are “designed to keep you spending a lot of time searching and scrolling.” I did.
the voice The host added: “Once I got through that period, I was released and when I finally got my phone back, I stopped using it.
“I didn’t want to go back to the relationship I had with my phone, so I left my brick phone alone for a few more days.”
“Everything I need for daily living, living and managing is stored on my smartphone,” Willis said, adding that she uses another device to check social media once a day.
Back in May, MPs called on the government to consider a legal ban on mobile phones in schools and a total ban on mobile phones for under-16s.
The House of Commons Education Committee said tougher guidance was needed on how to manage mobile phones at school and children’s screen time at home to better protect young people.
They argued that screen time is harmful to children’s physical and mental health and that both schools and parents need clear guidance from the government on this issue.
Earlier this year, the Department for Education issued non-statutory guidance instructing principals on how to ban phone use not only during lessons but also during breaks and lunch breaks. But the committee said this was not enough.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in July that he believed the government needed to “rethink” the content children could access online, but did not support “simply banning” mobile phones for under-16s. said.
“I don’t think that’s realistic progress,” he says.
Swipe: Schools banning smartphones It will be broadcast on Channel 4 later this year.
