Some of the posh teens at Eton will be losing their Snapchat access in the coming school year. The British boarding school, famous for its exorbitant price tag ($60,000 per year) and famous alums (Princes William and Harry both attended), will be banning smartphones for its incoming class this fall.
CBS News reported that parents of year-nine students were informed of this new policy via a letter. The students’ smartphones will be sent back home after their SIM cards are removed and transferred to offline Nokia phones provided by the school. These phones do not have access to the internet and can only be used to make phone calls and send “C U L8R”-style texts.
While I’m sure the boys of Eton are pressed that they won’t be able to post TikTok reviews of shepherd’s pie from the dining hall, they don’t really know how good they have it. I would love for someone to do this for me. I need some kind of authority figure to take my phone away for most of the year, blocking me from spending my one precious life watching Instagram reels of people who live a “carnivore lifestyle.” Unfortunately, I am almost 29 years old, and the only authority figure in my life is me (and she is not doing a good job).
Smartphone bans seem to be the way of the future when it comes to schools. Eton is just the latest institution to separate kids and their iPhones. Over 2,000 schools in the U.S. are using Yondr pouches, which keep kids’ phones locked away until the end of the school day. Just this week, Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order establishing “cell-phone-free” classrooms in the state’s schools. New York City is also considering keeping students away from their phones.
Unfortunately, Yondr only does large orders of pouches for schools and entertainment venues. If you are an adult with a crippling dependence on your phone, you have to buy a special $249 lockbox. Perhaps I should just try “being mindful.” Ugh.
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