The problem is people's perceptions have changed markedly.
20+ years ago, you had a cell phone, maybe, for messages during the day, and that's it. Outside of some simple phone games, most had no internet access, and you weren't constantly in a group chat with people in class discussing how boring it was or something else, so how often it took your focus even if you were subverting the rules was much more limited.
Now, I have my phone in my pocket all the time, and a reputation of being difficult to reach because I often have it on silent to not interrupt my life, when apps randomly find new excuses to pop up notifications midday that have no urgency to them, and businesses expect you to not be bothered if they text you at a random time.
But most people are just on them, all the time, child and adult, so applying a new rule to that will prove challenging, because the group perception is that's unreasonable to do, and people will fight back hard on it, both for that reason and because it's an addictive serotonin drip in your pocket that a lot of people have no practice with delaying the gratification of, any more.
(e: This isn't to say we shouldn't do it, to be clear, but that's why, I think, it will be a hard sell, and because people don't immediately see the value of it, they will probably keep doing things like burner phones, and at least in the US, I think explicit cell phone jamming on your campus is a violation of rules, so limiting how much people can get away with having a secret phone for midday online access is also tricky.)
20+ years ago, you had a cell phone, maybe, for messages during the day, and that's it. Outside of some simple phone games, most had no internet access, and you weren't constantly in a group chat with people in class discussing how boring it was or something else, so how often it took your focus even if you were subverting the rules was much more limited.
Now, I have my phone in my pocket all the time, and a reputation of being difficult to reach because I often have it on silent to not interrupt my life, when apps randomly find new excuses to pop up notifications midday that have no urgency to them, and businesses expect you to not be bothered if they text you at a random time.
But most people are just on them, all the time, child and adult, so applying a new rule to that will prove challenging, because the group perception is that's unreasonable to do, and people will fight back hard on it, both for that reason and because it's an addictive serotonin drip in your pocket that a lot of people have no practice with delaying the gratification of, any more.
(e: This isn't to say we shouldn't do it, to be clear, but that's why, I think, it will be a hard sell, and because people don't immediately see the value of it, they will probably keep doing things like burner phones, and at least in the US, I think explicit cell phone jamming on your campus is a violation of rules, so limiting how much people can get away with having a secret phone for midday online access is also tricky.)