Are Cellphone Bans Working?

Education

Are Cellphone Bans Working?

What's going on: School cellphone bans are popular with parents and lawmakers (not to mention teachers) — but do they actually help students? A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research lands on a very unsatisfying answer: yes… and no. Researchers looked at more than 40,000 schools from 2019 to 2026 with varying levels of restrictions. Stricter bans, like locking phones in Yondr pouches, reduced phone use by about 30%. But students pushed back, well-being dipped, and suspensions rose. Still, the upsides eventually became clear as teachers saw more engagement and less distraction. The big headline, though: Test scores barely budged. On average, the impact was “close to zero,” despite earlier, smaller studies that suggested otherwise.

What it means: Phones are a problem, but they’re not the problem. Attendance, test scores, bullying — none of it hinges on devices alone. That hasn’t stopped at least 32 states from passing some form of school cellphone restriction. The results are mixed and even nuanced at times. In one rural school, students use phones as stand-ins for lab tech. And banning phones doesn’t eliminate the internet or computers from their daily lives — it just reroutes them (hello, Google Chat or passing notes like us OGs). What bans do change: how kids interact in person. Teachers say cafeterias are louder now, in a good way. For a generation raised online, that might be the most meaningful shift of all. 

Related: Some Don’t Find It Fair When Adults Play by Different Cellphone Rules Than Students (TechRadar)

The News in 5

🗞️ The Supreme Court temporarily restored telehealth and mail access to mifepristone, saying it’ll weigh in again in one week.

🗞️ A luxury cruise ship carrying nearly 150 passengers is currently stranded off the coast of Cape Verde after a suspected hantavirus outbreak on board killed three.

🗞️ The White House is sending its secret weapon mediator to Rome to try to smooth things over between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV. When all else fails…

🗞️ The Elon Musk v. Sam Altman trial is now being live streamed, if that’s your idea of a fun time.

🗞️ Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni finally reached a settlement in the It Ends With Us case. Maybe that's why Lively was all smiles in her “revenge dress” at the Met Gala.

Caregiving

When the "Stay-At-Home-Daughter" Plot Backfires

What's going on: Back in college (we won’t say when), friends joked about becoming stay-at-home daughters. Turns out, it’s often more work. So much so that Business Insider says “being a daughter” is “America’s biggest career hurdle.” That’s because as millennials age, so do their parents, and someone has to step up — often their daughters. Some will have to take time off to help, dip into their savings, and even move back or closer to home. This comes at a time when the Department of Health and Human Services says up to 80% of eldercare is done by “informal” caregivers — AKA unpaid loved ones — and 61% of them are women (shocker).

What caregiving actually costs: Most of us don’t factor caregiving into our long-term career goals, but it can reshape everything. It can mean missing out on paid hours, promotions, and much more (not unlike what often happens when working women decide to become parents). Some people even have to leave the careers they’ve spent years working on. One estimate from 2023 found that unpaid caregiving costs for the average American woman equate to $295,000 in lost wages and retirement savings… in a lifetime. That’s on top of the emotional strain and physical demands. Guess that stay-at-home daughter joke really wasn’t that funny. 

Related: Did Fashion Finally Discover the Beauty of Older Women? (The New York Times Gift Link) 

Work

"Horrible Bosses" Could Have Been a Documentary 

What's going on: If your boss Slacks you at 5 am, asks to be CC’d on every email, drops Friday work that’s due on Monday, hands perks to the coworker from his frat, and scores you three out of five on your performance review despite it all, you’re not alone. A new survey finds that 6 in 10 American workers say they currently have a toxic boss, and 7 in 10 have had one at some point. This can lead to some serious setbacks — emotionally (stress, burnout, mental health strain) and financially (missed promotions, bonuses, and career growth). Is it any wonder that so many women are getting pushed out of the workplace?

How’d we get here?: Part of the problem is that middle managers have more direct reports than before and often get little to no training. Many are “accidental” managers who accepted a promotion and got handed a team along with it. Plus, some companies are now being pretty blatant about prioritizing profits over people, from massive layoffs to PTO and parental leave cuts. If you have a toxic boss, you can practice saying “no” to more things; if you are a boss, you can treat people with respect and fairness. But sometimes, the best thing to do is to look for a new job. No matter your title, “revenge quitting” feels so good.

Related: All Those Apps Your Job Makes You Use? They Might Be Selling Your Data (Inc.)

Quick Hits

👣 Things got a little touchy-feely on the Met Gala carpet last night. Gotta hand it to them for originality, though.

🤖 The masterminds behind the Roomba are releasing a (floofy) robot pet. So cute, it does not compute.

🩸 Lena Dunham’s Met Gala dress origin story is what nightmares are made of. Heads will roll.

🥖 This midday change could boost brain health. The French would be proud.

🍽️ Bon appétit! Nutritionists say these seven “unhealthy” foods are actually good for you.

👀 Learning this one thing about your partner could completely alter the nature of your relationship. To know or not to know, that is the question.

👑 Royal baby alert: This princess just announced she’s pregnant with her third child. Cue the trumpets. 

On Our Calendar

Things to jot down today…

🗓️ Happy Cinco de Mayo. Reminder: Today commemorates Mexico’s victory in the 1862 Battle of Puebla — not the country’s independence day.

🗓️ Tony Award nominations are out, and three Broadway veterans are getting lifetime achievement awards.

🗓️ On National Astronaut Day, we’re reliving our favorite Artemis II moments — including the relatable first food they had post-landing.

🗓️ CNN hosts the next debate in the race for California governor live at 9 pm ET. Will it be as animated as the last one?

Psst…For more dates worth knowing this week, check out the Skimm+ calendar.

Skimm'd by: Rashaan Ayesh, Kate Preziosi, Marisa Iallonardo, Molly Longman, Aryanna Prasad Bhullar, Erika W. Smith, and Marina Carver. Fact-checked by Sara Tardiff.