A "phone valet" whisks away participants' smartphones and places them into a backpack until the club's activities are done during a Reconnect Movement meeting on the University of Central Florida campus in Orlando, Fla., Sept. 2, 2025. — Agnes Lopez/The New York Times
Nearly every student clutches a phone in one hand as they traverse the University of Central Florida campus, even while walking in groups. Laptops and tablets are lunchtime companions, and earbuds and headphones are routine accessories. While waiting for class to start, many students sit in silence, drawn into their devices.
It is a familiar and exasperating scene for Seán Killingsworth, 22, a former UCF student. “What is this life I’m signing up for?” he asked himself during his sophomore year. “It was just like, I’m talking to a bunch of zombies.”
