As the Haverford community starts its third phone-free academic year, questions arise: Are Yondr pouches actually working? Do they build healthier student screen time habits? Is simply putting phones out of sight good enough in an era of smartphone addiction?
According to Dean of Students Mr. Luqman Kolade, the purpose of the Yondr pouch system is to foster community around the upper school.
“We want kids in community spaces engaging with each other,” Mr. Kolade said. “One of the things that we lost around COVID time was the whole idea of community, and this is an easy way to do it.”
“Most of the stuff you use your phone for you could very easily do on your computer.”
Daniel kHAN ’27
Over the past two years, Haverford has largely achieved its goal of a phone-free environment. However, does removing phones from sight actually improve students’ relationship with technology?
One argument is that the absence of smartphones does not eliminate the hallmarks of phone addiction but instead shifts the most common activities like doomscrolling and messaging to a different device.
“Most of the stuff you use your phone for you could very easily do on your computer,” Sixth Former Daniel Khan said. “You can go on Snapchat on your computer, you can go on Instagram, you can text friends on your computer. What Yondr pouches did was they made students hover more towards using their computers to talk.”
Some think that a larger, more cumbersome device cuts down on the “dopamine hit” provided by the readily accessible smartphone.
“With the phone it’s easier to scroll in the app and watch stuff, but with a laptop or even an iPad you kind of have to actually click stuff with a mouse,” Fifth Former Alton Tiongco said.
Mr. Kolade agrees.
“Computers are just far less efficient devices than phones are for doing that sort of stuff,” Mr. Kolade said. “You’re not going to walk around the hallways holding a computer. Having a computer, you have to be seated in a place.”
Social spaces like hallways are among the most important places to eliminate smartphone use. In a place meant for spontaneous interaction, even one visible phone can change the social atmosphere.
“Having no system didn’t work because kids were just on their phones all the time,” Mr. Kolade said. “They were in the hallway, they were leaving class, [and] they were in class on their phones. They weren’t talking to each other.”
“You’re on your phone on all these other days, [so] it’s kind of a normal thing. But then you get out of school, and the first thing you want to do is just check your phone. You’re immediately on it.”
Josh Bloom ’28
“The whole idea behind it, originally, was to get everybody to interact more with each other, and I think that’s the best feature of the Yondr pouch,” Fifth Former Josh Bloom said.
Yondr pouches have largely succeeded in eliminating visible phone use during school, but what happens once access resumes after dismissal? Some students may feel that being away from a smartphone creates a pull towards it, especially when notifications accumulate during the day.
“You’re on your phone on all these other days, [so] it’s kind of a normal thing. But then you get out of school, and the first thing you want to do is just check your phone. You’re immediately on it. I feel like there’s an extra necessity or want to have the phone,” Bloom said.
“First I’ll get bombarded with twenty email notifications or ten message notifications or miscellaneous notifications,” Khan said. “I’ll read through all that. My screen time’s not that high. I just put it in my suit pockets and walk to my car. I don’t stand there on my phone for half an hour.”
However, others note how any reduction in screen time can help curb smartphone addiction and foster healthier habits.
“It’s lowered my screen time a lot,” Tiongco said, “and it’s probably for the better. Because usually I don’t want to be on my phone, [but] I just end up being on my phone.”
Some hold the opinion that students will doomscroll after school either way, and so a reduction in screen time does not have adverse effects.
“You don’t have more time in the day after school than you did before. You’re not going to use your phone any less because you had your phone all day,” Mr. Kolade said.
As for enforcement, Yondr pouches provide a more robust way of eliminating visible phone use than the previous caddy system.
“Yondr does the job of not seeing phones around. It’s much easier to monitor,” Mr. Kolade said. “If a teacher sees a kid with a phone in the hallway, the teacher knows there’s a problem.”
“The Yondr is a tool to help you not break that [‘don’t have your phone out’] rule,” Sixth Former Mookie Dombar said.
Additionally, the administration plans to use both periods before community time in the new schedule for Yondr checks in an effort to reduce evasive practices. This will also ensure students are checked if they have first period free or if a teacher forgets to check their pouches.
However, the Haverford administration currently has no plans to extend the Yondr initiative to address students’ broader smartphone habits.
“This is the way that we can say that we’re not going to allow [phones] in the school day. That’s essentially it,” Mr. Kolade said. “If anything else comes from that afterwards, that’s great.”
As Haverford purports to be “preparing boys for life,” part of its duty is to instill good practices to allow its students to live healthy, balanced lives. Meta’s recent $18 billion settlement over teenagers’ social media addictions shows that students need to heal their relationships with technology now more than ever.
What are Haverford students to do once they enter a Yondr-free world if they have not improved their relationship with technology but merely relegated their phone use to outside of school?
Reducing technology use during school may still encourage healthier habits beyond the school day.
“We live in a day where technology is controlling us, and it’s made us less social with each other; we’re having trouble creating social networks and social connection, and I think it’s a problem,” Tiongco said. “I’m part of the problem too. I think most of us are. But it’s important to remember that if we just get off of phones and technology, that’s a huge step.”
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