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Reduced engagement with the world and other kids around them is a pretty sharp price to pay for less bullying. We really should do better.

Spoken like one who has never been bullied. "Engagement" is the last thing the victim wants for a damned good reason.

I have been. I just find the prospect of a world where humans barely interact with each other and are even closer to universally lonely and even less engaged with real life than right now to be extremely, extremely concerning.

There's data to suggest that mobile phone use and social media in particular are responsible for vastly higher levels of mental illness than any bullying has ever been.

Cutting humans off from reality is an extremely bad solution to bullying. We can and need to do better.

I suspect any marginal reduction of bullying because kids are too busy with their phones is more than counteracted by the much more pervasive and persistent bullying resulting from them being able to record everything happening in school.

I can think of a better solution: bring proper discipline back to schools.