WHEN PHONES GO SILENT

Derek yelped when the school bell sharply dinged, a harsh reminder of the class he was dreading. He tucked his phone into the top drawer of the highly graffiti-ed desk to remain hidden for the rest of the lesson. His twin sister sat next to him, rushingly with a thump. Anyone who knew her well would know straight away she was upset, "Der! Can you believe it? We can't even use our phones anymore. What's next? We can't wear clothing in class?" Derek sighed, replying with an exasperated tone at his sister's words, "Don't be dramatic, Laura... I'm pretty sure that's illegal or something." Recently, the new Vermont law took effect, stirring a mix of emotions among students. Some groaned that they couldn't talk to their friends who skipped school sick, some groaned that they were looking forward to going onto the next level of a game, and some groaned that they needed to tell their parents about the outstanding test result they had achieved. Though Derek felt a sense of calm. Call him lame, but he noticed how the atmosphere of the school changed. It seemed that more people were interacting joyfully with their friends, and fewer faces were glued to screens. He couldn't deny the convenient benefits he was missing out on, easily snapping notes from the board instead of writing them and sending them immediately to his friends who weren't in. When thinking about it, he couldn't help but glance over those problems as he found himself deeply engaged in a conversation with his partner over a math problem (mind you, if you said this to Derek a year ago, he'd laugh and go back to playing the game on his phone). But this law did not go without serious problems. Natasha, a lonely girl without friends, bullied for her unique sense of interest in a diverse range of topics, had lost one of her ways to cope with school. Her phone. A beacon she used to talk to her online friends who had the same interests as her to ignore the comments she got when walking down the halls was now gone, leaving her to hear all the insults at full volume. On the other hand, Jake complained continuously about how he was almost an adult and should be trusted to manage his devices as he earned the money to buy them, "This isn't fair! I should be trusted to use my phone responsibly. What if I have to call my mom in an emergency?!" Eventually, the school had heard the various complaints and settled with phones being off-limits during lesson time, but were free to use during Lunch and breaks. It wasn't perfect for everyone, but Derek found himself finding clarity, moments where he could catch up with reality but still could keep the balance of the digital world.