Addiction to Cell Phones - Research Paper Example

Cell Phone Addiction There is no debate about the fact that cell phone usage has increased dramatically over the last few years, in line with the number of functions that we expect our cell phone to do. Cell phone owners now have the option of relying on their phone for satellite navigation, radio, web browsing as well as the usual functions of texting and calling (Simmons, 2010). In line with this, there has been an increase in the number of texts sent each day, as well as the use of “free” texting services such as BBM (Hyman, 2013).

This has led some people to believe that the U.S. is a nation addicted to their cell phones. However, how do we decide whether our cell phone usage is normal, or if it is a real addiction that needs to be tackled in the same way?There are suggestions that cell phone addiction is an addiction like any other, so we need to apply the same conventions to this as we would for a drug or alcohol abuse problem. These include increased tolerance (needing more cell phone time to achieve the same result), an inability to cut back on use (an inability to leave the phone at home for a day or to enter a no signal area), and a reduction in competing behaviours (Hyman, 2013).

Arguably, many cell phone users do have a cell phone addiction based on these criteria, because it can be difficult to be without a phone when those around you are consistently using theirs. Additionally, there are now situations in which we rely on a cell phone for social behaviours, which should be seen as positive. This is not the same negative consequence as would come from a reliance upon drugs and alcohol.Much of the language that people are using to describe this issue is quite biased.

Whilst there are some scientific sources which tackle the issue from a psychological perspective (Hyman, 2013), news sources tend to side on hysterical (Carbonell et al, 2009). Mozes (2012) describes cell phones as an example of “materialism” and “impusiveness”, which are traditionally negative traits. This article suggests that much of the problem with cell phones could be compared to the actions of peacocks when they display their lek behaviour (Jenaro et al, 2007). This is backed up with some serious fact s and figures about the issues, as over 90% of students at U.S. colleges have a cell phone, and an average of 3200 texts are now sent per month by young adults.

Arguably, this does signal a problem for those who use cell phones. 3200 texts are now sent by young people a month, which means that they must spend a lot of time on their cell phones, which could be considered an addiction. However, it is important to look at the behaviours that this replaces as well as the consequences to define whether it is an addiction or not. For example, texting may have allowed people to increase their social interaction and therefore increase their psychological well-being (Koo & Park, 2010), making them happier and therefore more productive.

This does not seem like the result of an addiction, or at least not the result of a damaging addiction. The use of the word addiction may be accurate in it signifies “overuse”, but does have a lot of negative connotations that I believe are not appropriate to describe modern cell phone usage.Additionally, cell phones are an extremely new technology. This means that they cannot be judged by old standards, because many of the standards were not created to describe elements of the internet age (Koo & Park, 2010).

Human lifestyles are changing, which means that their perception of addiction and overuse are also changing. Combining this change with the fact that cell phone usage may allow young people to keep safe (without getting lost) and increase their social capacity, it seems as though the negative connotations of the word “addiction” should be left out of this argument. Perhaps the term “reliance” would be more appropriate, as this describes the growing use of cell phones without criminalizing the behaviour.

Works CitedCarbonell, X., Guardiola, E., Beranuy, M., & Bellés, A. (2009). A bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature on Internet, video games, and cell phone addiction. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA, 97(2), 102.Hyman, I. (2013). Are You Addicted to Your Cell Phone? Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-mishaps/201303/are-you-addicted-your-cell-phoneJenaro, C., Flores, N., Gómez-Vela, M., González-Gil, F., & Caballo, C. (2007).

Problematic internet and cell-phone use: Psychological, behavioral, and health correlates. Addiction research & theory, 15(3), 309–320.Koo, H. Y., & Park, H. S. (2010). Factors influencing cell phone addiction in adolescents. Journal of Korean Academy of Child Health Nursing, 16(1), 56–65.Mozes, A. (2012). Can Excessive Cellphone Use Become an Addiction? Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/12/04/can-excessive-cellphone-use-become-an-addictionSimmons, L. L. (2010).

The Everything Health Guide to Addiction and Recovery: Control your behavior and build a better life. Adams Media.