Schools with “bell-to-bell” phone bans are pushing students to bring back old-school methods to chat with friends—much to their teachers’ amusement.

“Schoolkids are creating a Google Doc with their friends that they all have real-time access to, and they just type into it during class,” one teacher explained in a recent TikTok video. The clip had since racked up over 4.4 million views. “They basically reinvented the AOL chat room.”

Other teachers have shared similar stories. “It’s like we are back in the nineties,” one said. “That’s what we did.”

Rather than get mad, many teachers praised the students’ ingenuity. “Kids will always find a way, but honestly, the creativity involved is a skill worth developing,” one commented.

The idea of pulling up a Google Doc to communicate with friend

See Full Page