My Disconnected World: A Study on Students’ Perceptions of Mobile Phone Ban and Digital Well-Being in Urban and Rural Schools

Abstract

This study analyses students’ perceptions of the Brazilian Law No. 15.100/2025, which prohibits mobile phone use in basic education, and explores its relation to screen time and digital well-being in urban and rural schools. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire with multiple-choice, Likert-scale, and open-ended questions, administered face-to-face to 199 students from grades 6–9 (100 rural – RA, 99 urban – UA). Descriptive and inferential analyses (t-tests and chi-square tests) were applied to compare groups. Results showed that RA students agreed more strongly that the ban helps concentration (mean = 3.26 vs. 2.29; t = 4.55; p < 0.001) and perceived it more positively overall (mean = 2.93 vs. 2.20; t = 3.73; p = 0.0003). Both groups, however, recognised the pedagogical potential of mobile phones when purposefully integrated into lessons (76.4% agreement). Open-ended responses revealed mixed experiences in reducing screen time, with reports ranging from anxiety to improved focus and social interaction. This exploratory classroom-based report combines quantitative data and pedagogical reflection to illustrate students’ attitudes toward digital well-being and promote conscious technology use in education.

Received: 5 September 2025 | Revised: 7 November 2025 | Accepted: 14 January 2026

Conflicts of Interest 
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement
Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Author Contribution Statement
Franciely Pereira Moreira: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original draft. Danielli Araújo Lima: Validation, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.