Don't read too much into it.
When the younger generation numerically dominates a room, out come the phones.
When grown-ups numerically dominate the room (especially since covid) the phone stays put away, but the kids (most of them) feel ill at ease.But they'll still talk, if pressed.
We have produced a generation of sociological isolates through technology - and recently have amped up that phenomena through isolation.
I think that's what Stafford is seeing, with the abnormally high influx of young players into the lockerroom.
You don't take away the phones; you substitute other activities. Start with this pfemise: Everybody wants to be known.
I watched one young woman, certainly a member of her 26-year-old generation, become the manager of a local coffee house.
She gave each of her peer group staff of barristas an assignment: Paint the top of a table. One table per week, take the table home, bring it back and tell us about it, Do something that reflects your personality. Pretty soon the place was alive with splashes of color.
She closed early one Saturday afternoon and took the entire staff down to the river. No phones. Just swimming, fishing, picnicing, social mixing and team building. She did similar things on winter evenings. Paid time - staff training and development.
The place was alive with music, warm smiles, eye contact, and personal engagement. Every time you walked in and placed an order, there'd be a question - about you. "How is your day going so far?" "I like your sweater - where did you get it?" Pretty soon the barristas knew their customers by name. The barristas functioned as a team - everybody pitched in to do everything. The business grew.
She had to start from ground zro to teach them how to socialize, to function from there as team members. In that culture individual performances improved; team performance improved.
Maybe that's what the Rams need to do - OTA's in a different key.