Whatever effect COVID has on education appears far smaller than smartphones, based on changes in schools when phones are effectively prohibited during school.

Whatever effect COVID has on education appears far smaller than smartphones, based on changes in schools when phones are effectively prohibited during school. Eg, https://www.businessinsider.com/high-school-teacher-all-schools-should-ban-phones-in-classroom-2024-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/high-school-teacher-all-scho... Anecdotal, agreed, but that's true of your hypothesis too.