‘I love it’: How a ‘Log-Off Lunch’ helps high schoolers break away from phones
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Inside a cafeteria at Two Rivers High School in Mendota Heights, students are lining up to get lunch and sitting at tables eating their meals.
Some entire tables are filled with kids silently scrolling on their phones. Others have a mix of people scrolling on their phones and talking to each other.
But there are about 10 tables of teens who are locked in conversation, phones stacked under an orange cone.
Students at those tables are participating in a challenge called the “Log Off Lunch Challenge,” meaning they’re pledging not to use their phones.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
The challenge is led by the school’s Digital Well-Being Club to encourage students to talk to their friends instead of being glued to their phones. The club’s mission is to educate the student community on having healthier relationships with social media and their screens.
“I love it,” said junior Olivia Kanavati, a club member. “It's really exciting to see people really engaging in conversation and improving relationships with their friends and things like that. It makes our lunch seem like a better place and makes people seem happier.”
Log Off Lunch was created by the club back in 2022, before the school imposed a policy restricting cell phones. Up to 400 kids participate every year. Aside from the chance to win free pizza, most students say they’re doing the challenge to connect with their friends.
They’re also worried about how phones are affecting them.
“Bullying – I think that's truly one of the worst things about the phone,” said freshman Nohami Girma. “Social media, it can change a lot of people's minds about things, and there's so many fake things on the internet, and it's such a bad thing.”
Social media poses risks for teens
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, up to 95 percent of youth ages 13 to 17 use social media. More than a third say they use it “almost constantly.”
And in 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General went so far as to issue a public warning about social media posing a “profound risk of harm” to young people. Teens say social media feeds into feelings of insecurity.
“You’re still gonna get unsolicited photos of maybe girls who don't look like you, or videos of people who are doing better off than you, or more academically successful people,” said junior Evangeline Fuentes, a member of Two Rivers’ Digital Well-Being Club.
“I think that I’m a very secure person, but I still find myself on social media comparing someone’s lifestyle, comparing someone’s hair color, comparing someone’s more expensive fake nails than mine.”
Some say the problem isn’t necessarily as simple as more social media equals worse mental health. Pediatrician Jenny Radesky, co-medical director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health, says the problem with social media is in its design.
“We think social media is affecting kids and amplifying the negative things that they're going through,” she said. “But it's important to recognize that social media is designed in so many ways that don't align with youth mental health.”
She says social media could be designed in a more youth-centered way that respects the need to disengage and not be constantly accessible – that isn’t feeding into compulsive use. Part of Radesky’s work is training teachers and child care providers across the country about how to talk to kids about potentially excessive phone use.
“We all deserve these chances to pause and reboot our relationship with technology at times, and you're much more likely to have those conversations if kids know we're not going to judge them, and we're going to try and partner with them around healthy behavior change,” said Radesky.
In 2022, Minnesota became the first state to invest in education on digital well-being through a grant for LiveMore ScreenLess. The Minnesota nonprofit has been working in schools to help youth have healthier relationships with technology.
Executive director Katherine Myers defines digital well-being as balanced and responsible use of technology. She hosts trainings on digital well-being and has helped high schools like Two Rivers create a digital well-being club.
Myers says young people should be leading the change around unhealthy phone use.
"The magic really happens when young people are given the tools to talk about digital well-being and process it and then take that themselves and bring it out into the community,” said Myers.
Minnesota joins other states weighing school cell phone bans
Minnesota has moved toward building policy around cell phones in schools, starting last year. A new law required all schools in the state to have a cell phone policy in place by March 15.
But legislators are going further and considering a cell phone ban. It would prohibit cell phones in K-8 schools and restricts screens in high school classrooms. So far, EducationWeek reports only four states (Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Utah) have statewide bans on cell phones in schools and several, including Minnesota, are proposing similar laws.
Myers says she supports boundaries on devices for middle schoolers and younger kids and education for youth on digital well-being.
"Adults need to be the adults and create those boundaries around device use and really ask the question, why? Why do we need it? Just because we can, should we?”
Sen. Alice Mann, DFL-Edina, introduced the legislation and says it aims to formalize policies on cell phones that are already being enforced by many schools in Minnesota.
“I think right now, what's happening is that our advances in technology are outpacing our abilities to keep up with it,” said Mann. “So we are trying to catch up right now. I think we also have to keep in mind that kids today don't know of a reality where they don't have a cell phone, which is different from when us older people grew up.”
Other legislators say Minnesota schools should have more time to see out their new cell phone policies.
“I believe we should let that go for a couple of years before we now turn around and say, ‘This is what your policy will be,’” said Sen. Jason Rarick, R-Pine City. “If they've started taking time to create a policy, and now we turn around and tell them what it's going to be, they've wasted a whole bunch of man hours creating that policy.”
The initial bill did not make it far but the proposed ban was included in an omnibus education policy bill, which was still being considered as of Friday. The legislative session ends May 19 and it is not yet clear if the ban will survive negotiations.
Schools officials say cell phone restrictions increase learning, decrease bullying
In the meantime, Two Rivers has seen more engagement and less bullying since implementing its cell phone policy.
The high school requires students to put away their phones during class, but they’re allowed screen time in the hallway, during a study hall or at lunch.
Principal Albert Johnson says teachers can focus on teaching, rather than telling kids to put away their phones.
“Staff immediately responded that they've seen an increase in homework completion. They've seen an increase in engagement in the classroom, less distractions,” said Johnson.
Johnson says students were pretty receptive to the new policy, too.
“Students stated, ‘Hey, I like it. Just because now I didn't realize how much I was looking at my phone and how distracted I was, I feel more engaged,’” he said.
St. Cloud Area School District follows a similar policy for high schoolers as Two Rivers, but does not allow phones in elementary and middle schools.
Other school cell phone policies are more restrictive. United South Central Schools in Wells requires students to lock their phones in a pouch at the start of the school day.
In the Independent School District 318 in Grand Rapids and Big Fork, high school students have to put their phones in a designated place at the start of each class.
Schools restricting cell phones across the board are seeing less bullying between students and more engaged learning in the classroom.
“We’ve seen a 50 percent reduction in cell phone discipline referrals,” said St. Cloud Public Schools Superintendent Laurie Putnam at a state Senate committee hearing earlier this year on the proposed cell phone ban.
“It is certainly a corollary to increased engagement in the classroom, and it decreases those power struggles that are happening day to day when someone’s saying ‘put away your cell phone.’”
If the Log Off Lunch at Two Rivers is any indicator, kids are hungry for time spent IRL.
“I think humans are very social animals, or like people are, are supposed to be very social, but if we're stuck on our phones, isolated all day, it'll be a little scary to see what happens. And like, will the world progress if we're all just kind of on our phones? I don't think that's very good for us as people,” said Raul Vaz, a Two Rivers senior.
This story is part of Call to Mind, American Public Media and MPR's initiative to foster new conversations about mental health.