Policies to Put Smartphones Away May Have Limited Impact on College Students' Classroom Experience

ABSTRACT How do smartphone policies shape students' experiences in the classroom? Smartphone presence has been linked with greater distraction and can undermine enjoyment in social contexts, but the effects of having smartphones out in the classroom have received less attention. We randomly assigned 234 college students to attend a 30‐min lecture where they were told to either put their phones away or leave their phones out. We evaluated how these instructions affected students' distraction, attention, enjoyment, and comprehension of lecture content. Students instructed to put smartphones away reported less distraction during the lecture compared to students instructed to leave smartphones out. However, no other differences emerged. Our results suggest that, despite evidence that smartphones can undermine enjoyment and learning, instructing students to put smartphones away had limited impact in this specific context. Limitations and potential implications for classroom engagement and learning are discussed.