Every student can relate to the stress that school brings, whether day-to-day feelings of anxiety or stress brought by assignments and tests; one popular tool that many students use to deal with this stress is listening to music. Many students rely on this tool to get through the day, when completing assignments, or throughout the day. Music has been known as an effective tool for anxiety and focus, but with the phone ban, this tool seems out of reach, leading many to step around this rule.
This school year, some may have noticed that Spotify has been blocked on Chromebooks. Frustrating students and being counterintuitive to the phone ban, this decision leaves students with one option left by the district: YouTube. Unfavored due to the constant buffering and inefficiency, this leaves students without a comfortable way to reach this well-needed tool, furthering the need to circumvent the phone ban. The point of the phone ban is to keep students engaged and off their phones. This was a divisive decision to say the least, but we can see the effects of this ban now that it’s been around half the school year already. For the most part, I’ve seen this to be effective, but with one issue, which is: Students have shown that they need this tool, but can’t comfortably reach it, meaning that this ban is at least somewhat ineffective if students can’t get the support that they need.
My experience has been that music is a need for me as someone who struggles with severe social anxiety; it’s one of the most effective coping strategies that works for me. This school year especially, I’ve used music more than I ever have; due to the Spotify ban on Chromebooks, I bought an MP3 player. Having this tool so reachable has made a huge impact on my attendance, as it is noticeably better, which, in turn, has also improved my grades. Being more comfortably able to go to school and stay there, able to handle daily stressors, has helped me start to push myself more and more each day, anxiety-wise along with helping me keep up with assignments and due dates, pushing my grades past just barely passing at the end of the semester, to Cs and Bs, eliminating the desperate end-of-semester semi-effective clutch that plagued my last school year. This is a great change for me, thanks to having the tools I need, school can seem way more manageable. This shows the need for this tool, for people like me and others as well.
My experience may not be the majority’s, but this issue is. This tool is needed by loads of students, just at different capacities. Almost everyone has used music to help focus on work; for some, it’s very much needed. Many have seen this effect firsthand, teachers and students alike.
To hear another opinion on this matter, I interviewed another student, Elijah Aberhethy. “I don’t like it at all, especially with how strict they’ve gotten with the phone policy….” student Elijah Aberhethy said. When asked about his experience with this ban, he said, “Since it’s [Spotify] banned on the Chromebooks and our phones are banned, I have no way to access the playlists during school, which absolutely sucks.” He followed this up with “While YouTube can work sometimes, it is very finicky and starts going in refresh loops, making it hard, and so YouTube is just very unreliable to use.” Showing the frustration of many when it comes to this issue. “…I much rather it [the phone policy] be lifted, and back to the way they used to do it where like, with proper reasoning you can have there phone out for 2 seconds to start your spotify playlist or like to get something to help you; it’s a really important tool for lots of us and when you take away this tool it makes it a lot more difficult for a lot of us to do the work in the first place.” He explains.
To hear a teacher’s opinion, I interviewed Ann Gateley, a teacher and IEP case manager. When asked about her views on the ban, she says that she believes that “the Spotify ban was short-sighted in conjunction with the phone ban,” along with saying that “Many students use music as a way to focus during independent work in noisy, crowded classes.” Showing her perspective on this action. When asked about the effectiveness of the ban, she further explains that “Blocking Spotify on the Chromebooks leads to students using their phones in class, which leads to distractions and makes it hard for teachers to enforce the phone ban- especially for students with music accommodations in their IEPs and 504s.” Showing a unique look at the teachers’ struggle to enforce the phone policy, with the removal of an alternative pathway to this tool. To further explain the students’ struggle with this decision, she says that, “Many of my students use music to focus and block out sounds, as well as self-regulate. Without this option, they are distracted by peers and sometimes more dysregulated.” When asked what would be an adequate solution, she shares her idea to “unblock Spotify and other music streaming sites.” Stating that “This would help enforce the phone ban as well as give students access to their accommodations.”
To conclude, this “music ban” is affecting many and is ineffective for what the district is trying to accomplish; it leaves students without the tools they need, not just frustrating to students, but also being unmindful of their needs. I know this is a district decision, not the schools, but I feel that this issue has a simple fix; to just unblock Spotify on Chromebooks would allow a comfortable path to this tool. This would be a decent compromise to the district’s want of engagement, and the students’ need for this tool; if not, it would at least be a better solution than what we have now.
