Telephone use in schools: a luxury or a deterrent from learning? As humans progress both psychologically and physically, technology it progresses just as fast, or perhaps even faster. Technology has advanced to the point where people can talk to a family member, colleague, or even a complete stranger with the touch of a couple of buttons. Now we can have a cell phone and media player in a four-ounce device that fits in the palm of our hands. However, with the advancement of multimedia devices, the danger of teenagers owning such devices increases. The threat of teenagers owning a device that can communicate and browse the Internet is not to be taken lightly, but you shouldn't approach this dilemma as if it were a nuclear threat. Smartphones should be allowed in schools, but some precautions should be taken. Phones have come a long way since their early days. When the first telephone was developed, a simple phone call took up to ten minutes just to connect. Calls made on this phone would go through a system of connections where the caller would have to declare who is calling and where the person lives. Many years later, a telephone was created that used a dial, which made calling easier. In 1963, the Bell Telephone company released the first push-button telephone. In 1983, the first cellular device, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, was created and took the world by storm. Shortly thereafter, miniature computers were inserted into these devices, allowing the user to browse parts of the web while using their cellular device. Yet we wouldn't see a product that let us browse the web, communicate with others, and let us store music and run apps, until 2007. (ht...... middle of paper ......ld be also used to browse inappropriate sites. Not all students own smartphones or even cell phones, so allowing the use of phones in schools would not necessarily be for the greater good, as not all students would be able to use this resource and privilege. Smartphones are becoming useful devices, with their ability to navigate the web, measuring distances via an image, determining whether a surface is flat, or even using a graphing calculator. Allowing such devices to be used as a learning advantage would allow students to achieve higher grades, be more likely to get into a school. good university and potentially earn a degree and diploma, as long as the smartphone user uses it for the correct and appropriate purpose, smartphones should be allowed in school. Allowing students to use smartphones would promote a better future for the next generation of American citizens.