It absolutely will. They will not be able to participate in almost all modern social interactions. Like, yeah, they will be able to talk to their friends, but only when at school and at sleepovers.
And even then, being excluded from having normal access to a phone still isolates them from "normal" people. Everyone pulls out their phone and all the phoneless person can do is either sit there in jealous silence like a loser or try to get everyone to stop playing on their phones when they're around them (also like a loser).
>I see the benefits of this in theory but in practice I worry that it will just cause more IRL bullying and isolation.
I have to disagree. There was plenty of bullying and isolation for kids before social media, before the Internet and, I'm sure, even before the printing press.
Kids can be very cruel to each other. This is (mostly) due to an understanding of the world that only includes a limited understanding of cause and effect.
That's not new, nor is it particularly profound. And it has nothing to do with computers or "social media."
Before social media no one had interactions on social media because social media didn't exist. Now if you avoid social media you become the kid who sits alone at the lunch table and weren't allowed to go outside to play with kids in the park (the park and lunch table are analogs for social media). Are you telling me that kids socially isolated kids weren't bullied in the past?
Bullying has and will always happen but the form it takes has changed significantly.
I see the benefits of this in theory but in practice I worry that it will just cause more IRL bullying and isolation.