09.00 on Monday came NRK Forbrukerinspekterene with two photographers, director and host Christian Strand at Elverum Folk High School. After words for the day, Strand entered the room with a simple message: For the next 24 hours I will have all their phones.

After frantic streak-snapping, a little nervous laughter and a lot of humming, the phones were registered in exchange for a red card from the FBI. The students could hand in this card at any time to get their mobile phone back. The box office with mobile phones was full, and not least leaden. It's not every day you lift on 131 phones.

Then the folk high school day continued as usual, with common subjects, meals and electives. The FBI hung on all day, and especially followed Malene Pedersen Dale, Malin Fosseide and Jens Reboli Bredesen. In addition, they had a so-called "confession cam" standing, where several students could tell about challenges they felt along the way.

Impressive enough only two students handed in the red card. Rumor has it that one of them called home and got a clear message: "put it back!".

Christian Strand announced in words for the day that the red card over the next XNUMX hours might give an extra good. At dinner, carrot cake was rolled out - but only to those who still had their card.

One of the first challenges who showed up after the cell phone was stowed away in a box, was the need for a watch. Only a few students had a watch on their arm, and virtually no one had an alarm clock. Fortunately, those who had an alarm clock more than happy to help with a common wake-up call, and at 07.00 on Tuesday it sounded in pots, lids and buck horns in the dormitory corridors. Some really appreciated being woken up, while others showed less enthusiasm…

After OFD Tuesday Christian Strand was able to re-enter the lecture hall, this time to return the phones. (We can mention that the teachers were very happy to get rid of the cash from the teacher's room, where it had dura and ring and ping in one go). Strand had to admit that he was impressed that only two people took out their mobile phones, and admitted that he had expected a larger drop-out rate. Then followed scenes with great joy of reunion, when the students could again check Snap, Instagram and all messages and alerts from the last XNUMX hours.

An important topic for common subjects

Although we are impressed with the students, there is reason to wonder a little about the result. Mobile, social media and internet use have been a topic in the common subject media for many years. In the teaching, we have implemented several variants of mobile-free day, but never with as much support as this year. Research shows quite unequivocally that mobile phone use is a time thief that affects our relationships and creates addiction. This was the theme for last week's media studies and the world today, and will continue to be the theme in the future.

• Why was the support for mobile-free day greater this year than before? Does it have anything to do with NRK's ​​authority? Is it because the students are being filmed? (It can then have nothing to do with this litter?).
• How did access to other devices with the internet affect the project?
• What would happen if the students did not live so close to each other?
• How would the experiment proceed at a high school or college where students do not see each other at all times?
• How honest is the coverage when you have a camera team present?
• When the focus of the program is to be mobile addiction, does it color how habits are made? Does it matter what you look for when the program is produced?

What happened?

Although we still have many questions, we can still conclude with something. Almost all the students said after the project that they would make a change in their mobile habits. This gives a clear picture that many people think they use the phone too much. It says not least that the project has given an awareness of habits and use.

At the time of writing, students are being challenged to come up with concrete measures they want to take to reduce mobile phone use. Maybe it's not so stupid to take any action?

(See photo gallery at the bottom of the case).

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