Whenever the weather takes a turn for the worse, I resort to taking the bus from class to class. With all the other like-minded individuals choosing to avoid the frigid, windy, or rainy weather as well, the white loop is always congested with students en route to their classes. Over the course of the school year, I have began to notice a trend every time I step foot onto the CATA autobus. As soon as the bus driver releases the parking break and begins to proceed to the next stop, an awkward, piercing silence fills the air despite the giant cluster of kids standing and sitting together. As I look around examining the transit, it becomes apparent that the reason behind the silence is due to every single boy and girl looking down at their cell phone, too infatuated with what’s going on in their virtual world to attempt to make conversation with their neighbor. Some might argue it’s a part of our generation; yet, I believe that cell phones have become too much of an obsession with today’s youth and something has to be done in order to prevent the problem from spreading into something much worse.

Just to prove how severe cell phone addiction has become among today’s youth, a study from Baylor University has revealed that women college students spend about 10 hours per day on their phone while the men have their iPhones and androids glued to their faces for another 8 hours…that’s a THIRD of the day spent looking at your cell phone. If that doesn’t seem sad to you, get this. 60% of students admit they feel as though they have developed an addiction to these “indispensable pieces of technology”. In order to uncover more about this unhealthy technological trend, the professors in the media communications department at Baylor conducted an online survey of 164 students. Out of the 24 cellphone applications and features they studied, 11 proved to have different effects based on gender. For example, popular social media apps Pinterest and Instagram proved to be as addicting as crack cocaine for women because as females, they are more easily attracted to social media whereas the men wasted time using their phones for “utilitarian or entertainment purposes”. Out of all the other features examined, texting took up the most time (94.6 minutes/day) followed by sending emails (48.5 minutes/day), checking Facebook (38.6 minutes/day), browsing the web (34.4 minutes/day) and listening to music (26.9 minutes/day). The study showed to have effects on the students’ school work, as well. “Cellphones may wind up being an escape mechanism from their classrooms. For some, cellphones in class may provide a way to cheat,” says researcher James Roberts, Ph.D., The Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business. He also noted that “as cellphone functions increase, addictions to this seemingly indispensable piece of technology become an increasingly realistic possibility.”

The consequences of cell phone addiction lie not only within the classroom but outside, too. Almost everyone I know, including myself, who has purchased an iPhone, always has it either in their pockets, backpack, or in their hands — almost as though it has become an extension of themselves. Dr. James Roberts believes that even though you might consider yourself a social media king, that doesn’t make you necessarily all that social. He claims that today “some people use a cellphone to dodge an awkward situation. They may pretend to take a call, send a text or check their phones.” It has been observed that huge increases in the use of smartphones is paired with a diminishing ability to communicate and socialize face-to-face. Another study conducted by the UCLA psychology department compared two groups of 11 and 12 year olds in order to verify whether binging social media had an effect on social skills. Predictably, the group that was totally separated from media, cell phones, and television “performed significantly better at recognizing emotions than those allowed to keep texting and tweeting and talking on Facebook after just five days.” Afterwards, Dr. Karl Benzio, an executive director for Lighthouse Networks, examined the problem at hand and identified 6 major repercussions from overusing a cell phone:

1.  Impatience in relationships because of the “instantaneousness” of social media.
2. Interference with relationship skill acquisition and implementation.
3. Having so many casual acquaintances as able to reach out to many people, but then no time to really have deeper relationships.
4. Mistaking social media relationships for real ones
5. Using social media to engage in more in depth and complicated relationship activities, like dating, breaking up, managing conflict, etc.
6. Inability to articulate or explain anything with depth of thought and feeling and requires back and forth connection.

With the path we’re on right now, we could possibly be headed for a new generation of socially awkward, impatient, thick-headed, sentimentally incapable tech heads. All is not lost, however, because according to PsychCentral.com there are a few ways to cope with cell phone addiction. First, like any other dilemma you might have in your life, it is most important to recognize and address the problem. Secondly, if you can’t quit cold turkey, try tracking your cell phone usage daily, weekly, monthly, and/or yearly in order to see how much you really are on that device. Once you start weaning off of it, discipline is absolutely essential for maintaining progress. Finally, after you start feeling more comfortable without it, you will begin to realize how insignificant all of social media and, more importantly, YOU are (yes, you are not as important as you probably think you are on Instagram, folks). Too many people are overly concerned with how high their follower count is on Twitter and Instagram instead of how high their GPA is. As the world starts to become more and more reliant on technology, it is absolutely imperative that people are educated of the risks associated with all kinds of it, especially on a cell phone.

Picture sources:

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