Cellphone Addiction

            When looking at a teenager the first probable thing you will notice is that they are on their smart phone. But that is only the start of this addiction. In fact, 69% of teen smartphone users check their phone within a couple of minutes after waking up in the morning and spend an average of 4 hours and 33 minutes per day on smartphones and tablets. (Turner, 2019). As harsh as that may sound, smartphone addiction has its advantages and its disadvantages in teenager’s academic and social lives in the United States. This addiction may not necessarily be fueled by phones themselves, but by the applications and games that are on that phone. This has grown into the culture of being a teenager in the United States and most people have grown accustomed to it. With this in mind, I will explore whether cellphones do more good or bad to teenagers in the United States in terms of their social and academic lives.

Effects on academic life

Smartphones could be advantageous for students. With the creation of Google, any information can be easily accessible with a simple search. According to Googles company website, they list their mission statement as, “Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (Google). This allows for any research a student may be conducting to be easily obtained through a simple search. Furthermore, a student who doesn’t understand something could easily go on YouTube where they will easily be able to find a video based on their search. In a way, smartphones are like portable textbooks that are completely public and almost instantaneous. Smartphones can also be useful tools in classrooms. For example, in a math class that consists of graphing functions, the Desmos application can be extremely useful as it is a portable graphing calculator accessible to anyone. In fact, in a survey conducted in a small Midwestern liberal arts university regarding whether smart phones are useful in the classroom, the results were that, “they indicated that the devices’ calculator, access to the Internet, and audio player features provided instructional benefits” (Thomas, 2013). In a sense, teens have everything they would ever need educationally on demand.

In a personal interview with Naum Rabinovich, the Director of Information Technology of Marks Jewish Community House (JCH) of Bensonhurst, he stated, “I don’t believe they are. We didn’t all have cell phones in my year and we found other things to distract us” (Rabinovich, 2019) when asked about whether cell phones were a distraction in his academic career. This provides emphasis that cell phones weren’t the problem approximately 10 years ago and in fact, students were still distracted by other means. He also states that, “I feel if teachers and professors stopped fighting technology, embraced it, encouraged and taught the students how to use them for something useful, then perhaps students would be smarter and more efficient in their studies” (Rabinovich, 2019). It is an interesting idea that he brings up, that cell phones aren’t the problem, but instead, the ways of teaching are old and outdated which in turn is the problem. Implementing technology and software on smart phones could perhaps modernize classrooms and their ways of teaching.

Smartphones also have disadvantages on student academics. For starters, it is extremely easy for a student to get distracted by their phone’s notification while in class. Let’s use Desmos as an example again. A math teacher wouldn’t know if their student is using their phone to graph something but instead, they could be on social media talking with their friends. In fact, 67% of surveyed teachers observed their students being negatively distracted by smartphones (Turner, 2019). In a survey conducted by Miami University, “the data revealed a significant negative correlation between cell phone use in the classroom and student GPA” (Battistoli, 2019). This provides some emphasis that smartphones are a distraction to a student’s academic life. A study done by Rutgers University found that the use of cellphones during lectures affected scores in the end-of-term exam by at least 5 percent, or half a grade (Buccino, 2018). In the Journal of Education and Practice, the author mentions, “The implications of mobile phone usage by students on school administration are: it is an object of distraction, encourages laziness as students now browse instead of going to the library” (Dania, 2016). It is now evident why there is a correlation between cell phone usage and grades and it is because students get lazy from doing assignments and spend that time being on their phones.

In New York City, cell phones have been banned by the Department of Education as they “disrupt the learning environment” (InformationWeek, 2006). But because there is a concern for students traveling far for their school, this ban is lightly or barely enforced in public schools. This is also the case for most public schools throughout the US. It is impossible to eliminate cell phones in public schools as safety is always a concern.

Effects on Social life

         Cellphone addiction also impact a teenager’s social life. For starters, they are easily able to connect and to communicate with friends or family that are on the other side of the world. Long distant relationships are easier to manage as programs like Skype and FaceTime allow for real time video calls. It is also very useful when you need to inform a friend about something whether it’d be news, changes of plans, or working on a project together. It has never been easier to create plans as with a simple text or phone call, one can arrange future events. The best aspect is when something comes up and then plans have to be altered, a simple phone call or a text will notify the other person about the changes whereas before, one would keep waiting for the arranged plans to start but they wouldn’t be informed of the situation.

When asked about how cell phones benefit communication, Mr. Rabinovich believes, “For communication alone, they give a wide variety of input methods to let anyone be able to communicate. From touch to dictation, communicating across any distance in any language is easier than ever now.” Through programs that were mentioned previously, it is extremely easy for a person in the United States to contact or talk to another person in Europe, for instance. “In a way, it puts the entire world into a single city. That’s how close I feel like I am to people around the world” (Rabinovich, 2019). After shifting the conversation to social aspects such as communicating in person, he mention an interesting idea that, “Cellphones are just a tool, they can’t be blamed for social problems like mass social anxiety; if children aren’t taught to be social, then they simply won’t be.” In his case, cell phones aren’t the source of lack of communication skills but instead it is their lack of knowledge. Finally, when asked how his work day would be different if he didn’t have a cell phone, he responded with, “My smartphone is my most useful utility, I use it to communicate, to gather information, to even run diagnostics related to my work.” When he gathers data, he can simply call or text a colleague where they will also respond fairly quickly. If that wasn’t the case, he would have to be constantly be running around the building and would probably be absent from his office, where if other people need his aid, he wouldn’t be found.

There are also negative impacts on teen’s social lives from their use of their cellphones. According to the Pew Research Center survey, 85% of teenagers tend to spend their time on YouTube, 72% of teenagers have Instagram and 69% have Snapchat. Snapchat and Instagram specifically have influenced the youth in an unimaginable way. By looking at celebrities and other popular people on social media, teens tend to use them as role models and sometimes even change a characteristic about themselves whether it’d be from dying their hair color, or getting piercings or specific haircuts. One 15-year-old girl believes that, “It provides a fake image of someone’s life. It sometimes makes me feel that their life is perfect when it is not” (Anderson, 2018). Moreover, in the survey conducted above, a quarter of the teens surveyed believed that social media has affected them in a negative way where 27% of that quarter state that there is bullying or rumors spreading. One 15-year-old boy from the survey stated, “People can say whatever they want with anonymity and I think that has a negative impact” (Anderson, 2018). Since everyone can be easily contacted by their phone, teens tend to have less in real life interactions. One girl from this survey stated, “It makes it harder for people to socialize in real life, because they become accustomed to not interacting with people in person” (Anderson, 2018). Teens meet less because of their phones to express themselves to avoid face-to-face discussions. With that in mind, it is harder for teens to verbally express themselves because they have the option of doing it behind the screen of their phones. This lack of social confidence also hinders some teenagers from leaving their house or from having a normal conversation without being attached to their phone. This also brings up a change in language. With texting becoming more and more popular, teenagers are creating new words which become short hand versions of other words or phrases. Texting actually “has no impact on grammar and spelling” (Weller, 2014). However, excessive texting and cell phone usage does impact communication skills. For example, the intent or emotions in a single text can be misunderstood or misinterpreted whereas if you were face to face with the person you are communicating with, their body language and tone will help one understand the context. This isn’t something you can see behind a text message.

Conclusion

            Cell phones are truly revolutionary in terms of how the world functions. Sometimes, it is hard to really fathom how life was back before cell phones were a thing. Now however, everything is available in just a few clicks and the world has never been more connected. They allow us to carry out work and other various functions in a quick and easy fashion. They also allow us to input data and gather data from anywhere of the world. Cell phones also have their arguable disadvantages in social and in educational settings such as potentially lowering student’s grades. But do the cons outweigh the pros? It all ultimately depends on how the cell phone is used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Anderson, Monica, and Jingjing Jiang. “Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 30 Nov. 2018, https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/.

Battistoli, B. “Cell Phones in the Classroom: Multitasking Magic or Multimedia Morass?” Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 2019, https://eric.ed.gov/?q=%22Phones%22&pg=3&id=EJ1228458

Buccino, Neal. “Cellphone Distraction in the Classroom Can Lead to Lower Grades, Rutgers Study Finds.” Rutgers Today, 24 Oct. 2018, https://news.rutgers.edu/cellphone-distraction-classroom-can-lead-lower-grades-rutgers-study-finds/20180723#.Xb9duuhKiiM.

Emerick, Emily, et al. “BENEFITS AND DISTRACTIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS TOOLS FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT LEARNING.” College Student Journal, vol. 53, no. 3, 2019, p. 265+. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A603511044/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=b5cb9081. Accessed 27 Oct. 2019.

Rabinovich, Naum. Personal interview. 30 October, 2019

Silver, Laura, et al. “2. Majorities Say Mobile Phones Are Good for Society, Even amid Concerns about Their Impact on Children.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 7 Mar. 2019, https://www.pewinternet.org/2019/03/07/majorities-say-mobile-phones-are-good-for-society-even-amid-concerns-about-their-impact-on-children/.

Thomas, Kevin. “Cell Phones in the Classroom.” Taylor & Francis, 19 Mar. 2014, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21532974.2013.10784721.

Turner, Ash. “Smartphone Addiction & Cell Phone Usage Statistics in 2019.” BankMyCell, 3 Sept. 2019,https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/smartphone-addiction/#chapter1.

Weller, Chris. “Can Texting Ruin A Child’s Grammar And Spelling?” Medical Daily, 19 June 2014, https://www.medicaldaily.com/can-texting-ruin-childs-grammar-and-spelling-impact-learning-write-cell-phone-288950.

“Google.” About, https://about.google/.

“NYC’s Ban On Cell Phones In Schools Sparks Challenge; Many schools didn’t enforce the policy until last month, when security guards used new metal detectors to confiscate more than 800 phones.” InformationWeek, 22 May 2006. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A146141289/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=8d71bd98. Accessed 3 Nov. 2019.