The more things grow, the more prone they are to disease. Take bananas, for example.
A long time ago, the “Big Mike” was the best banana, one of the most widespread bananas; it was sweeter, creamier, and way more intensely banana-flavored than the modern Cavendish banana, but one disease, the Fusarium wilt fungus, was all it took to end its reign.
Though… the more diseases grow, the more people want to stop their spread. Big Mikes are fighting for dear life. Although extremely expensive to cultivate and maintain, we still strive to keep it alive; the younger generations want the pleasure they no longer have.
Why am I talking about 1950s bananas in 2025? Because history repeats itself.
Our version of Big Mike’s is a common phone. nothing crazy, as long as it connects to wifi,, that’s good enough. It’s absolutely scrumptious, enjoyed by many, including students of iSchool. But it’s dying out the same way as Big Mike, with a virus, or also known as Yondr pouches, as long as the new phone policies. Our big mike is being replaced by a lesser alternative, but we have no choice but to use the school devices.
Though with this new disease, farmers with a lot of time and a will to work have been out against the disease, but you might know them as influencers, be it students or angry parents, using TikTok or journaling about it. These farmers (influencers) fight against the disease (yondrs), even if it’s hard (due to phone policies and yondrs) to keep the plant afloat (cell phones in school) rather than turning into lesser variants (school-mandated devices).
Now it doesn’t seem so different, does it?
History behind the pouches
In this story, I want to see if the switch to Scandinavian isn’t really that bad, and the reason people are fighting so hard against the Fusarium wilt fungus to bring back Big- wait, wrong script…
Ahem. this story explores how iSchool students and teachers have adapted to the new Yondr pouch phone policy. While many students find it inconvenient or unnecessary, teachers report higher focus and fewer distractions. Through interviews, surveys, and research, this article examines whether the Yondr system is a step toward better learning, or just a temporary fix.
“Most students also said that it didn’t really affect their productivity at all,” said Hara, a member of iSchool’s Equity Team. “They just asked for it to be allowed to be used during independent periods,” she continues.
If you didn’t know already, the pouches are “The [green] things that hold your phone,” as said by Silas, an 8th grader in a Pennsylvania school.
These pouches, known as Yondrs, became a big deal in 2023 through 2025, as they spread to the school ecosystem, though records show that these pouches were already spreading since 2014, and in production even before that.
Created by Graham Dugoni, he keeps the company concealed, not spreading much info (eg. Company revenue, CEO’s net worth, schools yondrs spread onto, etc.). Even though that, an estimate says 33% NYC schools adopted yondrs, and it might increase in the following years due to the new phone policies.
Graham calls social media “fundamentally lame”, his only social media indulgences being said to be “watching tennis”, and reportedly using only a flipphone.
This shows how detached he is from the internet, and might give us a glimpse into what he thinks.
Through these views, he set off to set up a phone-free community, trying to let people be in the moment.
This didn’t, of course, just happen, as he was a pro soccer player before deciding to make yondr. This most likely started when he saw a drunk man at a Treasure Island Music Festival, being a fool in public. Those around him were filming without consent.
“At a festival at Treasure Island in San Francisco in 2013, I saw some guy dancing pretty drunk and saw two strangers recording the guy, and they posted it to YouTube without the guy’s knowledge,” says Mr. Dugoni.
This is when he became interested in sociology and phone usage.
“Mr. Dugoni became increasingly aware of — and annoyed with — the way people were glued to their cellphones as face-to-face social interaction took a back seat. He also saw issues with smartphones and privacy…” said a Qatar Tribune article. “With $15,000 in his pocket, Mr. Dugoni set out to build Yondr. He spent about six months sketching designs, experimenting with 40 fabrics and locking devices, visiting hardware stores, and consulting with manufacturers in China before developing a prototype in 2014.” It continued. This is how he experienced harm brought through phones, and how he kick-started his business.
These intentions seem pure, since it’s true that having a computer in your pocket isn’t exactly the same as talking face to face.
Students’ Reactions
Well, as said by Hara, most students don’t mind the pouches. Not that they like them, but they don’t outright hate them. “The pouches do what they’re supposed to do but they’re expensive and not ideal. And if a student half-[heartedly does] something, they were most likely going to do that anyway” said 9th grader Silas, pointing out that the pouches are good at their jobs, but not ideal.
This matches up nicely with what the pitch fork has to say. “I feel like whether I have my phone or not doesn’t matter, if I don’t pay attention with it, I’m not going to pay attention without it,” said Zola Storino, a 10th grader.
They are also “just generally inconvenient,” as Hara put it.
The pouches aren’t only inconvenient for students, but for school themselves. The school district wants to push Yondrs to “create a distraction free learning experience”, but schools themselves might not be able to handle such a heavy load.
A couple months ago, Jenna Genovese, a TikToker, made a video about Yondrs, about how school prioritized them over cafeteria food. Saying they literally “ran out food” too feed the students.
The pouches are a great idea, but the execution isn’t as great. It a very primitive design, student being able too easily break through the mechanism. And the pouches lack, for example, foil wraps. Meaning that students have to turn off or put their phones in airplane mode.
In an emergency, where every second counts, they are also stopped by the machines, and as previously mentioned, if the phone is turned off, they have to waste time waiting for it to turn on.
Unlocking and locking pouches is also a hassle, since you have to lock them when you enter, and frankly, who wants to leave school on a Friday afternoon with their phone stuck inside a pouch? Getting in and out needs extra steps, accidents happen, and people have places to be. A huge time waste on the morning and afternoon rush.
The idea is right, and it could be actually wonderful, but in a system accustomed to having phones readily available, it seems a bit overwhelming. I mean, you might’ve come across a qr code or two while strolling the hallways.
Teachers’ comments
But, of course, we of course can’t bury the good parts, the CEO didn’t do this for the bad of the students, but for the good of communities. (unlike the inventor of homework). There is also no one perfect solution, the pouches are more of a band aid to keep us moving than an actual fix to the core. But it’s the best we got right now, and it’ll have to do.
The teachers are having a great time. Not having to use a hawk eye view to make sure no one is idling by, fighting over rowdy peeps not wanting to comply, reporting, emailing, etc must be hard. Just leaving the phone problem for the beginning and end of the day seems like a much more straight forward approach.
According to The Pitch Fork, “Yondr pouches have honestly helped. It is really annoying to have your phone locked up all day, but I feel like I’m a lot more locked in in all of my classes,” Frailie Mercer (11), a junior at Midtown High said.
The pouches, although expensive to start off, kick off the Yondr experience by setting up pre-set expectations, slides, and training. This is a bit of a platform schools can stand on to maintain their balance, and maintain they do.
As stated in the school’s Yondr rules, once they break it they will be fined. They don’t need to buy Yondr’s themselves, the students themselves help with the paying process, and show a bit about the student’s character.
Yondr pouches, although just a factory grade pouch, are very good at their job. For peeps who don’t trust others with their belongings, having their phone, even if unusable, saves them the trouble of worrying. It’s kept in a pretty decent casing as well, protecting the phone screen from the rough insides of a backpack. And the mechanism is simple, the speed on which the rush hours end scaling with Yondr magnets.
Even if the Yondr pouches might be a bit expensive and inconvenient, with school that can manage and adapt, they can a pretty good phone free ecosystem. But at the end of the day, it’s just a banana themed band-aid.
