This week, The Wall Street Journal highlighted HAX’s Light (HAX Growth 02) in the article, “This School Took Away Smartphones. The Kids Don’t Mind”.
The Light Phone, “your phone away from phone,” was developed in partnership with Foxconn and Light’s cloud platform to encourage users to leave behind the distractions of a smartphone while maintaining essential contact with loved ones through voice calls and basic texting functions. Light Phone is a fraction of the size of a modern smartphone and keeps a user’s existing phone number.
Buxton School, a 57-student high school-level boarding school in Williamstown, Massachusetts, recently adopted a no-smartphone policy on campus and instead supplied students and faculty with Light Phones. While some students initially protested the ban, the WSJ reported, many students now acknowledge how Light Phones have afforded them a newfound sense of focus in their studies and incentive to engage with their peers and teachers. Buxton is the first school to partner with Light. The company supplies refurbished phones while the school pays for service.
Light co-founder and CEO Kaiwei Tang told the WSJ that while the majority of the Light’s users are young adults trying to be more intentional about their screen time, parents are also interested in using Light Phones to help their children regulate their screen habits early on.