iDependent: Are We Addicted to our Smartphones?

1022 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Use of mobile phones by youth

Interaction is an area of social research that continues to grow as new ways of communicating are continually developed. Face-to-face interaction as the oldest form of interaction obviously has been the topic of lots of literature, less literature exists discussing interaction mediated through devices such as mobile phones (Rettie, 2009). The growing adoption of such devices makes this an ever expanding area of research for many disciplines; a search for the term ‘smartphone’ in any academic database such as JStor returns results discussing their application to law, healthcare services, their role in education, as a means of marketing, as a new method for social and psychological research, the list goes on. So the key question is, with all its affordances has the smartphone become indispensable? The smartphone trend is only expected to grow, the adoption rate is outpacing all other handheld digital devices in history (Chun, Lee and Kim, 2012), with estimations that there will be around 10billion smartphones worldwide by 2016 (more than the number of humans) (Financial Management, 2012). In 2010 90% of the world’s population had access to mobile networks (Bolin, 2012); in 2013 there were 82.7million mobile subscriptions in the UK (Ofcom, 2013). A study of teens (12-17 year olds) and their use of smartphones in the US showed that use had increased over a two year period; the median number of texts had gone from 50 texts per day in 2009 to 60 per day by 2011, with a more drastic increase for older teens, the increase for 14-17 year olds went from 60 per day to 100 per day in the same two year period (Lenhart, 2012). In the study 63% of teens said they exchanged texts with people in their lives every day, 39% would use their phone to... ... middle of paper ... ...nfographic/prime-number/rise-smartphone [Accessed: 13/04/2014] Lenhart, A., 2012. Teens, Smartphones & Texting. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. [online] Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media//Files/Reports/2012/PIP_Teens_Smartphones_and_Texting.pdf [Accessed: 13/04/2014] McCafferty, D., 2013. Smartphone Addiction Reaching New Heights. [online] Available at: http://www.cioinsight.com/it-strategy/mobile-wireless/slideshows/smartphone-addiction-reaching-new-heights.html [Accessed: 13/04/2014] Ofcom, 2013. Ofcom Facts and Figures. [online] Available at: http://media.ofcom.org.uk/facts/. [Accessed: 13/04/2014] Rettie, R., 2008. Mobile Phones as Network Capital: Facilitating Connections. Mobility. 3(2) pp.291-311 Rettie, R., 2009. Mobile Phone Communication: Extending Goffman to Mediated Interaction. Sociology. 43(3) pp.421-438

Show More
Related

  • Are You There? By Nancy Lublin

    1617 Words  | 4 Pages

    To begin, it is evident today that teenagers love being connected with their friends and family all at the tip of their thumbs. They love texting. According to a study by Amanda Lenhart, 88 percent of teens use a cell phone or smart phone of which 90 percent of them use text message. An average teen sends 30 texts per day. (Lenhart) As shown in this study, teens have easy access to text messaging. In her Ted talks called “Texting That Save Lives” and “The Heartbreaking Text That Inspired a Crisis Help Line,” Nancy Lublin talks about how she received disturbing text messages from young people that mentions how they’re being bullied, wanting to commit suicide, cutting themselves, and being raped by their father. She was exceedingly emotional when receiving these texts. She felt like she had to do something about it. So, with her knowledge about teens and the power of texting, Nancy Lublin created something that would help save these young kids’ lives, the Crisis Text Line. (“Texting”)(“Heartbreaking”)

    Read More

  • When Texting Is Wrong By Randy Cohen

    453 Words  | 1 Pages

    Today in the Twenty-First century we have surpassed many technological advancements and excelled far past what we would have ever thought. One of our greatest technological advancements is the thing we hold in our hands everyday, our cell phones. Sometimes we don't realize just how much our phones can distract us from our lives. As a generation glued to our phones us teenagers send an average of 3,339 texts per month. In Randy Cohen's essay, “When texting is wrong” he states how we are overcome by texting and how it damages our social and personal lives.

    Read More

  • How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds By Nicholas Carr

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Researchers at the University of Essex divided participants into pairs and had them talk to each other for 10 minutes with half the participants having a phone with them and the rest without one present. The study was conducted to test how the presence of phones affected affinity, empathy, and trust. The results of the study indicated that phones caused a decrease in empathy and understanding and prevented the participants from establishing a connection with their partners.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Doctor Jean Twenge's Article: Has The Smartphone Destrocted A Generation

    1613 Words  | 4 Pages

    Doctor Jean Twenge is an American psychologist who published an article for The Atlantic titled “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?” in September 2017. The purpose of Twenge’s article is to highlight the growing burden of smartphones in our current society. She argues that teenagers are completely relying on smartphones in order to have a social life, which in return is crippling their generation. Twenge effectively uses rhetorical devices in order to draw attention to the impact of smartphones on a specific generation.

    Read More

  • Teen Texting Argument Analysis

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    A recent outbreak in teen texting is taking a toll on their daily lives. Many teenagers have cell phones. Their parents get them phones for their safety and well-being, but is that what teens really use them for? I for one know that I rarely call my parents or use my phone for important reasons. Most of the time, I’m scrolling through Instagram and snapchat, to keep up with everyone that I will see in less than a day. The editorial from The Jersey Journal, called Teens are going to extremes with texting, informs the common people of the statistics of teen texting. The editorials main argument is communicating the excessiveness of teen texting. The author develops this point through expert uses of word choice, but also extreme examples and statistics.

    Read More

  • Technology And Technology Essay

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recent polls have gathered that 22% of teenagers access their favorite social media website at least ten times a day, while more than half of teenager visit more than twices within a day. Over 70% of teenagers own some form of cell phone, 56% using them for texting on a daily basis. As such, many teenagers hold this social interaction as "very important" or "crucial" in their...

    Read More

  • Growing Up Online

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    Teens may be technologically savvy, important in a culture reliant on technology, but have fewer skills in dealing with real people. The economic divide pushes those without financial means further from those with internet access and the latest gadgets. How did we survive as teenagers without cell phones and texting? Increasing reliance on e-communication puts those unable to avail themselves of technology at greater disadvantage as they enter adulthood and the workforce. Nevertheless, these problems are not confined to the youth of the world.

    Read More

  • The Pros and Cons of Texting

    1900 Words  | 4 Pages

    Schencker, Lisa. “Can texting bring teens, parents closer 2gether?: Texting might improve communication” Financial Times Ltd.             (2009). Worldcat. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.

    Read More

  • Smartphone Impact On Culture Essay

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    The smart phones have affected our culture in many possible ways which leads to increase in personal efficiency and communication. Even though, smartphone can become a tool for constant connection with the world; the smartphone also makes people disconnect with the world around them such as friends and family. As Zackary suggests that “The invention and rising popularity of the smartphone has completely transformed our culture of socialization and interaction.”(2015) Smartphones are very powerful tools that can allow people to use many functions such as phone, text, internet, apps, games, and social media and so on. Smartphones are readily available and so easy to use that people are less willing to interact with another people more than their smartphone. Smartphone becomes a necessity for many people of their life because of their usefulness. We constantly see people who are using their smartphone more often, which a

    Read More

  • The Negative Impact of Text Messaging on Literacy

    1434 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mobile phones have become a way of life for many people and it may not be the best thing for their literacy, spelling, and communication skills. Mobile phones are the sole means for communication for many people, including young adolescents. In some cases they have completely replaced the thought of having a landline phone at home or in the office. A 2008 study by The Mobile Life Report found that 94% of young people in the United Kin...

    Read More

  • Cell Phone Use in Teens

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Netzley, D Patricia. “ How Does Cell Phone Use Impact Teenagers?” Reference Point Press. San

    Read More

  • Social Media and Young Adults Review

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project studies the behavior and attitudes towards cell phones and highlights the generation of teens and young adults who use cell phones, a setting between 18-29- year- olds. This project conducted up to 100 surveys and wrote up to 200 reports on teens and internet use, as Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, and Zickuhr explained in the research. She also reported with other colleagues how their findings on social media and internet use situated among older children compared within the data between adolescents and older children. Lenhart’s current data draws a hypothesis conducted from this study-this research had started between June and August of 800 teenagers between 12 and 17 who use cell phones as a source of how they behave online more than they do in the real world.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Effects Of Texting On Teen Literacy

    1964 Words  | 4 Pages

    I have yet to not see one of my peers walking with their eyes glued to their cell phones. They quickly type the day’s events on a tiny screen that they use almost all day, every day. Teenagers today use texting as a primary source of communication. Although texting is an efficient and quick way of communication, texting is reducing teen literacy due to lack of face to face communication, abbreviated spelling, and meaningless conversation. Teen literacy today is at a low. According to author Anne Lewis, “more than eight million students in grades 4-12 are reading at "below basic" levels” (Education Digest 51). Because of the simplicity of most ways of communication, it deprives the teens of communicating effectively. They become so used to

    Read More

  • The Impact of Cell Phone Usage on Our Social Life

    1604 Words  | 4 Pages

    Cell phones have changed from an item of luxury to an everyday necessity for some people. Twenty five years ago, a phone was just a way to contact someone. Mobile phones have become one of the most common tools of communications for both young and old. Cellular devices have redefined relationships and social conduct, and transformed the daily lives of many individuals. Cell phones no longer function just as a communication device. Today it has many other uses. Cell phones are used for games, calculators, texting, calendars, social sites, and pictures. In addition, there are many apps that one can download on a phone. Mobile phones help us keep track of our lives.

    Read More

  • Positive and Negative Effects of Mobile Phones for Teenagers

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mobile phone is a device which allows its user to make and receive telephone calls to and from the public telephone network which includes other mobile phones and fixed line phones all around the world The use of cell phones has dramatically became a new age of convenience for billions of people around the world. Teenagers are the majority of mobile users in the world. Mobile phones have become one important part of a teenager's life. The usage of mobile phones has re-shaped, re-organized and altered several social facets of life (Ravidchandran, S. V., (2009)). When focusing on teenagers’ mobile phone usage, literature has provided evidence for both positive and negative effects of mobile phone on teenagers. In this high-tech world a mobile phone equips a teenager with all its needs.

    Read More

More about iDependent: Are We Addicted to our Smartphones?

Open Document