text: In their attachment to their smartphones, the students at Mercy High in Burlingame, California are typical teenagers. But when they enter Mr. Offield's English class, the phones get locked into little bags, which can't be opened until class is over. 
   
   "By separating something that's primarily for their social life, I'm hoping that it brings them more in the moment," Offield said. 
   
   Graham Dugoni is the founder of the startup company, Yondr, that makes the bags. He's attempting to break cellphone addiction and "help people engage with each other in a real way." 
   
   "What it symbolizes is a movement, and the bag is just the tool," Dugoni said. 
   
   The Yondr pouch locks much like a security tag in a clothing store. If someone needs to access their phone, they can choose to leave the phone-free zone, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. 
   
   Dugoni first introduced the bags at nightclubs in tech-centric San Francisco. "Sometimes you see someone come in and their shoulders are uptight, they're clutching their phone like it's a baby," Dugoni said. "You can read it on their face - they're saying, 'don't take my phone away.'" 
   
   It's a new movement challenging the pervasive habit of viewing the world through the screen of a smartphone. 
   
   The Yondr bags are now mandatory for everyone attending a performance by comedian Dave Chappelle. 
   
   "We've had a strict 'no cellphone' rule for years. Obviously, if you look on YouTube, you'll see very few people adhere to it," Chapelle said. 
   
   Before the bags, Chappelle often found himself telling jokes to people distracted by their devices. 
   
   "It would be very hard for you to talk to anybody if he was doing this the whole time you're talking," he said, pulling a phone out of his pocket. 
   
   Dugoni hopes to see the bags used in arenas that seat as many as 20,000. 
   
   "After the first five minutes, there's twitchy hands and looking for their phones, then they seem to forget about it and slip into that natural mode of interaction. And that's kind of the golden moment," Dugoni said. 
   
   Back at Mercy High, administrator Summer Dittmer admits to having phone separation anxiety. 
   
   "I walked into a club, they asked for my phone, I said no. They said, 'you need to put your phone in here or you're not going to see anything happening in the venue.' So they gave me the thing, put my phone in, put it in my purse," Dittmer recalled. "It was almost like being separated from your own limb, but in the end, I remembered more than I typically do at a concert." 
   
   Drivers blame "addiction" for phone use while driving 
   
   That experience prompted her to lease the bags for her school. For senior Ally Ick, locking her phone up was a mental adjustment. 
   
   "Maybe if there's something going on on social media, I could be really tempted to want to check my phone every second, but then with the Yonder pouches, it takes away that feeling and you don't have to worry about it so much," Ick said. 
   
   Junior Daniela Clinton had to bag her phone for three days on a school retreat. 
   
   "I could hear it vibrating, but I couldn't grab it and use it. I hated it so much," Clinton said. But she adjusted. "It was a break from reality. I completely forgot about everything - even school - and that was nice." 
   
   But not everyone is ready to let go of their electronic addictions. One Dave Chappelle audience member was caught red-handed. 
   
   "Just to be clear, you're no longer welcome in the venue while Dave's performing here," security told him. 
   
   "I understand why everybody uses their phones and why people are addicted to this technology. I'm not any different from them," Chappelle said. "But people actually watch the show, they're in the moment and they're vastly more fun to speak to." ||||| 
   
   We’ll need to see your phone, please: An audience member places her cellphone into a Yondr pouch before entering the Aztec Theatre in San Antonio for a June 14 Dave Chappelle show where a phone-free policy was enforced. (Bahram Mark Sobhani/For The Washington Post) 
   
   On a cool Manhattan night, DJ Walton, who helps manage Alicia Keys, steps outside the Highline Ballroom to tell the guy at the door who, exactly, he may allow to bring a cellphone into the singer’s sold-out gig. The list is very short. 
   
   “Like, Queen Latifah,” says Walton. 
   
   Benji Spanier nods and spreads the news to everybody else. This is a “phone-free event,” he tells fans waiting in line. And that doesn’t mean airplane mode. Spanier holds a gray, rubbery pouch in his hand. Your phone goes in here, he says, and then we lock it. 
   
   “What?” one fan grumbles. 
   
   Quickly, Spanier adds an important addendum. 
   
   You keep that locked pouch with you. Spanier also explains that if you need to use your phone, you can just come outside and he can quickly unlock it by tapping it on a metal disk slightly larger than a bagel. The tension breaks. 
   
   “If you had told me you were going to put it in a locker, I’d have been pissed off,” Kevin Schmidt, 37, tells him. “This is okay.” 
   
   Yonder CEO and founder Graham Dugoni discusses how the company is able to disable cell phone usage during live events, helping make venues cell phone free events for stars like Dave Chapelle and Alicia Keys. (Sami Jarroush/Consequence of Sound) 
   
   The pouch might not look like the latest techno-bling out of Silicon Valley, but it’s become the go-to tool for a slew of artists — including Dave Chappelle, the Lumineers and Louis C.K. — trying to reclaim their live performances without going all Adele on their fans. Created by the San Francisco-based Yondr, it has been brought in for special moments: Chris Rock’s warm-up shows before he hosted the Oscars; April’s “surprise” Guns N’ Roses reunion gig at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. The pouch has also been used for regular shows by those tired of seeing every note and punch-line churned into a series of blurry, streamable insta-clips. 
   
   
   
   A box of Yondr phone pouches awaiting concertgoers at the Chappelle show. (Bahram Mark Sobhani/For The Washington Post) 
   
   Benji Spanier of Yondr shows theater staff how to use the pouches. (Bahram Mark Sobhani/For The Washington Post) 
   
   “I tried all sorts of things,” says Wesley Schultz, the Lumineers singer and guitarist. “If you yell at the audience or treat them like kids, they’re going to act like kids. You want to give people the responsibility and put the onus on them, but how do you do that?” 
   
   The pouch, he says, is the best option he’s seen yet. 
   
   “Because people still feel they still have their baby in their arm,” Schultz says. “It’s a little bit clunky but it’s better than telling them to leave their phones in their cars or forbidding it.” 
   
   [Why allowing texting in movie theaters might have been a brilliant idea] 
   
   Graham Dugoni, 29, Yondr’s founder, is a former college soccer star who, after graduating from Duke University with a political science degree, tried his hand at finance but found himself increasingly drawn to music. He had an epiphany while watching a guy dancing at a festival. 
   
   “He was pretty drunk, and two strangers were videotaping the guy, and I watched them, over their shoulder, posting on YouTube,” says Dugoni. “If a guy can’t go to a concert and just kind of let loose, what does that do to all interactions in the social sphere?” 
   
   Dugoni started Yondr two years ago. He tested prototypes of the pouch at a cabaret show in Oakland, Calif., and also at a school in Portland, Ore. Eventually, Dugoni cashed out his IRA, sold his Jeep and found his first real investor, raising about $100,000 in total. 
   
   Electronic artist ZHU signed on for a series of shows. Comedian Hannibal Buress, whose YouTube’d comments about Bill Cosby in 2014 made him famous — a fact that came to annoy him — hired Yondr for a gig in 2015. During Oscar weekend, Rock and C.K. used the neoprene pouch for shows at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. Dave Chappelle, an early booster, brought in Yondr for shows this month. 
   
   
   
   Alicia Keys is one of an increasing number of stars attempting to declare their shows phone-free zones. (Luca Bruno/AP) 
   
   Wesley Schultz of the Lumineers think the pouch system works. “It’s better than telling them to leave their phones in their cars.” (Amy Harris/Invision/AP) 
   
   Dugoni says the pouch serves two purposes. The artist can try out new material without worrying about it being leaked. Fans will also realize that they actually enjoy a show more without constantly filming, texting and Tweeting. 
   
   “If you haven’t been to a phone-free show, you just don’t know what you’re missing,” he says. “There’s something about living in real life that can’t be replicated.” 
   
   [When it is and isn’t okay to be on your smartphone: The conclusive guide] 
   
   In the line outside the Keys show, not everybody was so grateful. 
   
   “In this day and age, my phone is how I keep my memory,” said Gerard Little, 24. “Chris Brown. Jason Derulo. I have their footage on my phone. If you don’t want your music heard, then don’t perform it.” 
   
   Andrea Ostolaza, 29, said she wanted to share the concert with her friends who couldn’t get in. 
   
   “If it doesn’t have a flash or light, I don’t feel like it’s disrupting,” she said. 
   
   Others embraced the phone-free zone. 
   
   “Nobody values people’s music, nobody values release dates, and when music gets leaked, it destroys the mystery,” said Ahtivah Lawton, 22. 
   
   “It’s annoying when people have their phones out, lights blaring,” said Jackie Coward, 53. “They can’t stop texting. It’s disrespectful, and I like Alicia Keys. I don’t need to put out her stuff early. They should do this in more places.” 
   
   For DJ Walton, the manager, the only real issue is that Keys planned to premiere songs from her planned follow-up to 2012’s “Girl on Fire.” 
   
   “We don’t want the first time you ever hear a song to be some [lousy] MP3 somebody captured on their phone,” said Walton. “We have a 30-foot stage and you’re looking at it through a four-inch iPhone. We want people to come and almost forget about their phones for a moment.” ||||| Get the latest from TODAY Sign up for our newsletter 
   
   The lights dim, the music starts and the phones and cameras come out — that's what live shows are like these days. Filming the event has become as much a part of the concert-going experience as swaying to the music. 
   
   However, some artists are no fans of that habit. Adele recently — and bluntly — told a fan to pack up her pro recording equipment during a performance in Italy. But Alicia Keys and others are taking it a step further and banning phones altogether. 
   
   They're not actually preventing attendees from entering the arena with the devices. But they are preventing them from using them, with the help of a small case that makes it impossible to access the phones during a show. 
   
   RELATED: 'Honestly beautiful': Alicia Keys opens up about makeup-free photos in new essay 
   
   If you bring your phone to an Alicia Keys concert, prepare to have it locked up in a small pouch. John Salangsang/Invision/AP 
   
   As fans file into the venue, security guards place their phones in a Yondr case, and that's where the devices remain until they leave the concert (or just step away from the performance area for a quick call or text, should the need arise). 
   
   "We think smartphones have incredible utility, but not in every setting," Yondr explained on their website. "In some situations, they have become a distraction and a crutch — cutting people off from each other and their immediate surroundings." 
   
   RELATED: Adele tells fan to put the video camera away: 'I'm really here in real life' 
   
   People taking photographs with touch smart phone during a music concert live on stage for the Ace of Heart tour at Sports arena in Thessaloniki Shutterstock 
   
   Keys and other music stars aren't the only ones using the technology. Comedians Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K. are also on-board with the phone ban. 
   
   But audiences are torn. 
   
   “In this day and age, my phone is how I keep my memory,” one Keys concertgoer told the Washington Post. “Chris Brown. Jason Derulo. I have their footage on my phone. If you don’t want your music heard, then don’t perform it.” 
   
   Another told the Post, "It’s annoying when people have their phones out, lights blaring. They can’t stop texting. It’s disrespectful, and I like Alicia Keys." 
   
   Still others simply worry about the potential security risk that comes with denying people fast access to their phones should a real emergency arise. 
   
   Follow Ree Hines on Twitter. ||||| "The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived." 
   
   
   
   – Søren Kierkegaard
target: – While some fret about the government coming to take their guns, an increasing number of musicians and comedians are coming for your cellphones. The Washington Post reports Dave Chappelle, Louis CK, the Lumineers, Alicia Keys, Chris Rock, and Guns N' Roses are among the artists using a new device called Yondr to separate fans from their phones during performances. Yondr is a small pouch for your phone that is locked by venue staff. You can carry it with you, but your phone is unusable for the duration of the show. “If you haven’t been to a phone-free show, you just don’t know what you’re missing,” Yondr founder Graham Dugoni says. “There’s something about living in real life that can’t be replicated.” At least one California high school is even using the pouches, according to CBS News. Artists are not only worried about phones ruining the experience—Chappelle tells CBS people are "vastly more fun" to perform for when they aren't on their phones—but about their work being immediately posted to YouTube and Instagram. “We don’t want the first time you ever hear a song to be some [lousy] MP3 somebody captured on their phone,” Keys’ manager tells the Post. While many fans are understanding, not everyone is willing to go without their phone for a few hours. "My phone is how I keep my memory," one man waiting in line to see Keys says. "If you don’t want your music heard, then don’t perform it.” Today reports that others worry—in the wake of mass shootings—about the risk if fans don't have immediate access to their phones in an emergency. (This Paris attack survivor credits his phone with saving his life.)