Short answer: a little, on average. The useful part is who it hurts.

In a survey of 1,839 students at one US university, those who spent more time on Facebook had slightly lower grades. The author called the link “negligible at best”, and it does not show which way it runs: students with lower grades may simply spend more time on Facebook.1

Bans helped the students who were behind

When English secondary schools banned phones, average test scores at 16 rose only slightly. Students who had been struggling gained about twice as much, and the top students gained nothing measurable.2 A study of Norwegian middle schools found no average effect of bans, but better grades for girls, especially girls from disadvantaged backgrounds.3

Not every study agrees. A 2025 study of 30 English schools found that pupils at schools with strict phone rules did no better than pupils at relaxed ones. They also used their phones just as much over the whole day.4 The effects are small wherever they turn up. But where bans made a difference, the students who gained were the ones who were struggling or disadvantaged.

The cost is attention

What tracks lower grades is the phone in use, not the rule on paper. In that English study, pupils who used their phones more during the school day were more likely to be below target in English and maths.4

And distraction is common. Three in ten 15-year-olds in OECD countries say they get distracted using digital devices in most or every maths lesson. Students distracted by classmates’ devices in at least some lessons scored lower in maths, even after accounting for their background.5

Try this

Keep your phone in another room while you study, not face down on the desk. Two studies found that people did better on tests with the phone in another room. A careful repeat of one of them found no difference.6, 7, 8 It costs nothing to try.

Then notice what pulls you back to the phone: your friends, or the feed? The people you want to hear from can live somewhere quieter. Every card in the directory has a Notifications row, so you can pick one that leaves you alone. We make one of them, DearAll, and it is marked as ours.