MINOT — When Pat Traynor, North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong’s interim Commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services, said that excessive use of cellphones and other digital devices is “probably the biggest public health threat that we have,” I wrote that he was wrong, and

accused him of stoking a moral panic.

Traynor came on today’s episode of the Plain Talk podcast to talk about it, and said that our devices leave us “continuously distracted.” Referring to North Dakota’s law circumscribing cellphone use in public schools, he wondered how studens can be effectively educated when in a “constant distractive state.”

Since cellphones aren’t going away in our society any time soon, does a ban on their presence in schools help or hinder our ability to teach kids how to deal with them responsibly? Traynor says that part is up to families.

“Remember there’s 24 hours in a day. Just from a standpoint of, parents still control the environment within which their kids grow up. Values. Norms,” he said. “For instance, when you have a family meal together, are you present? And that goes for us, goes for me, with my kids and everything of the sort. But you’re in charge of your family structure, as a parent or with guardians and others that take care of children.”

Also on this episode, me and guest co-host Kyler Collom,

from The Dakotan,

discussed the use of

a religious litmus test

in appointing state Rep. Kathy Skroch to replace former Rep. Cindy Schreiber-Beck in District 25, and the mounting

controversy

around a similar appointment process playing out in District 42, where Rep. Emily O’Brien resigned her seat to take a position in Armstrong’s administration.

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