I would like to propose a different approach here that has in fact been practiced by some of my professors.
What if, instead of blanket banning laptops, you banned them to the last row. That way laptop users can only distract other laptop users. I realize this still isn't ideal for those of us who want to use a laptop in a way that may generally be perceived as productive, because they are still exposed to all those distractions, but they would still have the choice of not using a laptop and sitting somewhere else.
In the past I have generally chosen to sit in the back because for me the advantages of being able to follow the approach that works best for me have outweighed the 'visual noise' that I am mostly able to ignore, thankfully.
Another approach that I have personally witnessed was to ban laptops for everything but materials directly related to the class.
This may sound impossible to verify, but somehow one of my professors managed to do that. I suspect it was using the very signs of distractions you just described, eyes flicking over, maybe small expressions of amusement displayed by those browsing Facebook/Reddit/9gag/...
He consistently called out those people who were distracting themselves and others and left everyone looking at the slides in peace.
What if, instead of blanket banning laptops, you banned them to the last row. That way laptop users can only distract other laptop users. I realize this still isn't ideal for those of us who want to use a laptop in a way that may generally be perceived as productive, because they are still exposed to all those distractions, but they would still have the choice of not using a laptop and sitting somewhere else.
In the past I have generally chosen to sit in the back because for me the advantages of being able to follow the approach that works best for me have outweighed the 'visual noise' that I am mostly able to ignore, thankfully.
Another approach that I have personally witnessed was to ban laptops for everything but materials directly related to the class. This may sound impossible to verify, but somehow one of my professors managed to do that. I suspect it was using the very signs of distractions you just described, eyes flicking over, maybe small expressions of amusement displayed by those browsing Facebook/Reddit/9gag/... He consistently called out those people who were distracting themselves and others and left everyone looking at the slides in peace.