Influence Of Smartphones On Teenagers - Research Paper Example

Influence Of Smartphones On Teenagers Introduction The introduction of Smart phones is one of the ways through which technological advancements have been experienced in the world today. Smartphones have replaced the traditional phones in several phone stores. It is for the reason that they have not only made it easier to communicate but have also led to a lot of convenience among different people through the creation of direct contact. It is because of this that their use has been applied and implemented in a great number of areas within the society. These include parents who have thought it appropriate to purchase mobile phones for their teenagers for a number of reasons. Unlike the other types of phones with button keys, Smartphones tend to provide an easier way of texting. In this case, the rate of texting among teenagers in the society has risen significantly as opposed to calling. Consequently, concentration has been affected in most of the areas where teenagers are involved thus reducing their overall performance in the related activities (Bertel & Stald, 2011). Research Questions 1. What is the reason why teenagers want to buy Smartphones despite them being more expensive than the traditional phones? 2. What are the major disadvantages in the classroom setup that result from teenagers using Smartphones? 3. How is concentration affected through the use of Smartphones and what is its impact in the daily activities of teenagers in the Society? Literature Review The use of Smartphones appears to be one of the trending things in the society today. In particular, teens have been popular with it owing to the tendency of frequent texting. Texting has become a dominant mode of communication between teens and those with whom they communicate. Currently, the average teenager is sending and receiving a great number of texts than they did initially. Although the use of phones has been extremely beneficial there are several areas where it has not been found to be convenient due to the varied levels of interruptions that it creates. Teenage interactions and concentration are proper examples of this. It is shown by the constant efforts of instructors and parents to get the attention of the teenagers especially if they are students who have been known to take time using their mobile phones in the recent times (Mayer, 1996). It has been contributed by the many modifications that have come with the touch screens. According to Skenazy (2009), Smartphones and tablets they have different apps which can be silently used in the classrooms. This will be investigated in this paper where the effects of use of the Smart phones will be evaluated and analyzed. Concentration is one of the most vital elements in most of life processes. It is important on the streets, home and even the school environment to ensure that the desired results are obtained. The introduction of Smart phones has for this reason been found to be a major hindrance in attaining high levels of concentration especially among teenagers. It is this group of individuals who have high levels of interaction and thus possess the greatest chances to be distracted. Different communication stimuli are some of the present factors within the classroom that require a balance in order to achieve the best intended results. Methodology The principle objective of this study is to determine the impact that texting or posting as well as verbal communication through phone has on the conduct of the students in the classroom. These include taking of notes and their general learning behavior (Wood et al., 2012). Similarly to the conclusion made by Kraushaar and Novak (2001), there is a possibility that the major observation will be the significant difference in the test scores among the students when the control group is compared with the other groups. In this case, this study is conducted with the postulation that: In a similar way to driving, the engagement in the classroom activity is one that involves tasks that are cognitively intensive since they require a great deal of vigilance and active listening. A lot of negative theoretical and pedagogical implications have been witnessed with the advent of use of mobile phones in the classrooms. The total number of participants in this experiment was 30 students. They were enrolled in one of the communication lectures in the university. In the multiple choice test results that cover the lecture material, the group that does not text or post will have the greatest scores. They will be followed by those engaged in moderate texting or posting then those involved in frequent posting and texting behaviors (Wood et al., 2012). Instruments In order to gain more understanding on the subject, observation was discovered to be the best method. It would provide actual information on how the use of Smartphones affects the activities of the students in the classroom setup. In addition, questionnaires were also used to get the feeling of various people regarding the subjects. The study involved the impact of use of mobile phones in the classroom environment. This was done both during the class lectures as well as during other forms of class learning. In this experiment a number of groups were used in order to observe the differences that are brought out by the varied use of mobile phones in the classroom set up (Mayer, 1996). The participant students were divided into three different groups that contained 10 members each. These were divided into A, B and C which represented the control, low distraction and high distraction groups respectively. As such, the experiment research design that was put into use in this case was the method that involves the division of the participants into three groups. These include a control group where the students listened attentively to the lecture and took their notes as well as two other groups who albeit took part in listening to the lecture, were also involved in other simulated activities such as texting and posting (Wood et al., 2012). This is because the different groups of students were placed to watch a video during the lecture, take notes in the course of the lecture and take two learning assignments after they had watched the video lecture. One of these two latter groups was involved in moderate level of distraction while the other was highly involved in the distracting activities (Smith, 2010) Results The key element of this study was to ascertain whether the use of phone in the class has a negative impact on how students take their notes and their general performance (Rickards, 1979). From this research, it was ascertained that the use of mobile phones is a serious problem that is facing most schools currently. A large number of educational leaders have been forced to deal with the dangers that are presented by the use of cell phones in the schools every day. In case students are involved in split attention between the listening that is required during lectures and the active communication through SNS and texting, they tend to miss the important information and cues from the discussions and the classroom lectures (Titsworth & Kierwa, 2004). As is revealed in other research study, it is clear that texting more that verbal communication is a great impediment to the learning activities since it causes a massive amount of degradation (Wood et al., 2012). It has been realized that although Smartphones are expensive, teenagers are willing to own one because they are trendy and convenient. They do this in the pursuit for fashion and influence. Nonetheless, although communication has been made easier, teenagers are also involved in other activities provided by the phone. With this, they tend to concentrate more on these actions than on their daily activities. This has affected concentration and a decline in results such as school work and house chores (Smith, 2010). Discussion The reason why teenagers use Smartphones is because of their convenience and the ability to offer multiple functions at the same time. However, although they make life a bit easier, they also result to some form of trouble. From the experiment, it was found that about 62% of students who were not using mobile phones during the lecture were able to write more information in their notebooks. These were more detailed as compared to those that were made by students who were using their mobile phones. In addition, they were able to remember information from the lecture in a more detailed way as well as their ability to score a higher letter grade and a higher half grade in multiple question and choices test than those who were actively involved in the use of their Smart phones during class sessions. The third hypothesis was confirmed since the control group scored greatest in the multiple-choice test, followed by the lowly distracted group and then the highly diverted group that scored least. Conclusion The use of the mobile phone has been found to be ineffective especially in the classroom setup. It is because of this that reconsideration has been made that the loaded gun is not the most unsafe item around the school compound. On the contrary, the effort by most parents to encourage their children to use the Smart phones around the school compound is met with a lot of controversy. As such, although the parents have a good aim of allowing their children to access the use of Smart phones, they do not understand that there can be misuse of the phones in an inappropriate way. It is thus advisable that the use of mobile phones in class is completely stopped to avoid adverse effects. References Bertel, T. F. & Stald, G. B. (2011): From SMS to SNS: The Use of the Internet on the Mobile Phone among Young Danes. Paper presented at the Nordmedia conference in Akureyri,Iceland. August 2011Kraushaar, J. M., & Novak, D. C. (2010). Examining the affects of student multitasking with laptops during the lecture. Journal of Information Systems Education, Vol. 21: pp. 241 251. Mayer, R. E. (1996). Learners as information processors: Legacies and limitations of educational psychology’s second metaphor. Educational psychologist, Vol. 31: pp. 151-161. Rickards, J. P. (1979). Note taking: Theory and research. Improving Human Performance, Vol. 8: pp. 152-161. Smith, M. (2010). BlackBerry has become teenagers' Smartphone of choice. The Guardian, August. Skenazy, L. (2009). Smartphone apps great for marketing, bad for social skills. Advertising Age. Retrieved from 18 May 2014 from http://adage.com Titsworth, B. S., & Kiewra, K. A. (2004). Spoken organizational lecture cues and student notetaking as facilitators of student learning. Contemporary Educational Psychology, Vol. 29: pp. 447-461. Wood, E., Zivcakova, L., Gentile, P., Archer, K., De Pasquale, D., & Nosko, A. (2012). Examining the impact of off-task multi-tasking with technology on real-time classroom learning. Computers & Education, Vol. 58: pp. 365-374. Appendix or Questionnaire Please Tick Where Appropriate 1. To what age group do you belong? 10-15 16-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 2. What is your gender? Male Female 3. What is your level of education? Junior Grade Senior Grade College University Graduate 4. Do you possess a smart phone? Yes No 5. What are the reasons why you purchased the phone? Need Pressure Influence Fashion Image 6. How many of your friends or peers also own the phone? 1-2 3-5 More than 5 7. How many times have you changed the make and model of the phone since you started using Smartphones? None Once Twice Thrice More than five times 8. What major operation do you undertake on your phone? Texting Calling Communication on Social Media 9. Approximately how many hours do you use to text or on your phone every day? 1-5 5-10 10-15 15-20 10. Does it include your class or office time? Yes No 11. How has the use of Smartphones affected your daily activities? None It has improved Slowed activities 12. Have you had to finish your work at a later time due to the use of the phone? Yes No 13. How many times has this happened? 1-5 5-10 More than 10 Read More