'Cigarettes and smartphones have a lot in common'
Smoking and mobile phones are both addictive and harmful. Leave those phones at home or in the locker during school hours.
There is a video of my first birthday. It shows a living room full of birthday visitors with a large crowd of small children. At a certain moment my grandfather Wim (1911–1993) enters the room. After shaking hands with everyone, he pulls out his tobacco pouch and begins to fill a large pipe. Some time later, no one can be seen through the camera's eye, as the revelers are completely enveloped in the fumes of his Neptune pipe tobacco.
Smoking has moved from rule to exception
It is a situation that is virtually unthinkable 37 years later. The few who still smoke do so outside and certainly at a good distance from children. It is an example of how a government campaign has successfully brought about a cultural change in society. The expert-proven insight that smoking has dramatic effects on public health has forced the government to adopt a coercive policy, despite the billions in excise taxes, the tobacco lobby and the fallacies of the nicotine junkies. Smoking has moved from rule to exception. Tribute.
Let Minister Wiersma take a decisive decision
The parallels with smartphone use are easy to draw. Everyone does it, it turns out to be addictive, it affects mental well-being and concentration and is disastrous for school performance. I'm not making that up; it is the result of various scientific studies. A group of experts recently updated the House of Representatives on the risks of smartphone use. Before the summer, Minister Wiersma will announce whether there will be a nationwide ban on mobile phones at schools, following France's example.
The possible intention loosens the tongues considerably. Here, too, the similarities with the smoking debate are striking. In the nineties you were looked at with pity if you kindly asked people at a party to smoke outside. Many smokers dismissed the health risks as mythical and when pubs were obliged to put out ashtrays, the reactions were raging. It wouldn't help a bit and such a ban couldn't be enforced anyway. Nothing turned out to be less true.
There are weak arguments against scientifically based research
The same patterns of behavior can be observed in this discussion. There are weak arguments against scientifically based research. The problem of enforcement has of course already been used and a student of the LAKS student association called the smartphone a necessary variation on the oh-so-boring monologues of the teachers, a hilarious argument that unintentionally pleads for a ban on smartphones.
So I very much agree with the proposal to leave those phones at home or in the locker during school hours. As a variation on the other government policy, let Minister Wiersma take a decisive decision based on vision. Then we can probably see how enforcement is going in France.
