Yondr Pouches: Yes or No?

Authors: Angel Lopez and Jake Truong

In recent times, Yondr pouches have become more widespread. This is due to new laws enforcing a phone ban in school as an attempt to stop phone usage in school. But is this truly an effective measure or just a cash grab to burden schools even more?

Yondr pouches are fabric bags that are used to lock phones away during class time. They use a magnetic locking system similar to the anti theft protection found on clothes in clothes stores. They are opened using a magnetic device built to open these pouches. However, theft protection for clothes is not known for its reliability and is more associated with being cheap.

I would say Yondr pouches do have upsides. They do reduce phone use with students due to the increased difficulty of accessing them. So in theory kids are more focused… In theory. But it’s like a cheap lock it keeps honest people out but not people who really want to go in. If you really wanted you could use a scissor to open the pouches but you would have turned it in at the end of the year.

Even though the issue with phones being used during class has been here for a while, why is it only now that school officials are resorting to Yondr pouches? The main reason is that students use their phones throughout the whole day, not being social in school grounds and they suspected that's why students felt lonely, being plugged to a screen the whole day. So when Yondr pouches were introduced into schools (and forced), they were a way to enforce socializing and to keep them off their phones until school was over.

Considering the price that is 30 dollars for students for what's essentially a glorified phone bag. This should be considered a cashgrab.