This question comes from Annalisa, who asks, what do you tell your students about phone use in class? Well, my policy has converged to me not bringing it up. Essentially, the configuration of the type of classes I teach are such that it is to your peril if you are trying to divide your attention.

Because I teach technical classes-- algorithms, mathematics, theoretical computer science-- if you stop paying attention to look at your phone, you will miss the thing I'm explaining. And if you miss the thing I'm explaining, that's going to be an issue, because you need know how to do it for your exam.

So because of the technical rigor of my classes, it's just a natural side effect that most people aren't going to use their phone. And if people want to, then I think there's just natural consequences. I'm not really of the mindset that I should be talking to fellow adults. And if you're at college, you're a fellow adult, and telling them how they should or shouldn't behave, we'll leave them up to that to make that discovery.

Two things to say about this, though. One, I may have a biased perspective. Because my reputation now precedes me, my students might be unusually compliant about not using the phone in a way that other academics might not enjoy. In other words, they might be a little bit nervous to be on their phone in a Cal Newport class.

That might be going on. Two, I will say there was an occasion a few years ago, teaching a PhD level class. It was a theory of computer science, doctoral theory class. And there were some students on their phone. Some of my grad students were on their phone. And I did talk to them about it.

And I said, you know, this is a small class. It has complicated material. And I don't know if you should be on your phone or whatever it was. I actually confronted them about it. And it turned out that they were actually looking up what I was talking about in class.

Or they had their textbook on their phone. I forgot exactly what it was. But it made complete sense why they were on their phone. They weren't looking at their email. They weren't looking at social media. They were actually trying to pay attention even better to what I was saying.

So I kind of learned my lesson there. I'm not going to yell at people. I teach in such a way that it is in your benefit to pay attention. But if you want to check your phone, you're adults. And it's not my role to tell you what to do.

(upbeat music)