The Invisible Addiction: Cell-Phone Activities and Addiction Among Male and Female College Students

Danilo Timana                                                10/17/15

Fcsc 101- M02

Articles to be discussed:

Title: The invisible addiction: cell-phone activities and addiction among male and female college students     

Author: James A. Roberts

Journal of publication: Journal of Behavioral Addictions

Date of publication: 2014 December 3rd

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4291831/

Before I begin I will like to ask you a couple question to make you aware of an addiction that you are possibly building up, do you have a cellphone? , What different types of activities do you do on your cellphone? , And how much time do you spend on your phone? These questions target the way a person uses their phone on a daily basis and although the answers you might give do not seem like a big deal it could be a problem. These devices that we use to contact our family and friends and that keeps people entertained could be the cause of a habit-forming addiction.

Many of use see our cellphone activities, as a normal day-to-day routine may actually be a cellphone addiction.  A Research began with human fascination with technology, such as radios and TV’s when they first came out to our modern times dealing with cellphones. In recent years study has shown that cellphones are a large part of a students life. One of the studies shows that two thousand and fifty U.S college students logged in one hour and forty minutes using Facebook every day. A research named “the invisible addiction: Cell-phone activities and addiction among male and female college students” has targeted the activities that are most closely related to cellphone addiction. Many students have even said that they notice their cellphone usage to be a problem.

A field study was created to determine what activities are most closely related to college students having cellphone addiction. This field study occurred at Baylor University located at Waco, Texas. This study is focusing on college students, students in between the age of nineteen through twenty-two. One university agreed to the research to be done its students, the questionnaire would be anonymously and be sent back and forth through email. The university made the questionnaire a requirement for the course and all the students were a part of the marketing department. The group of students consisted of 80 female and 84 male students. A Scale was also created to help determine if there is a cellphone addiction.

“These are the applications and activities that were measured: internet, email, banking, books, camera, calendar, clock, a bible, music app, coupon app, Google maps, eBay, amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, ITunes, Pandora, and other apps.” Any questionnaires that were submitted after the 24-hour period were disregarded. A different scale was a different scale to determine the number of calls, Text messages and emails sent out.

Another part of the research was to see out of males and females, who would use their phone more during the day. Results show that women  tend to use their cellphone more then men, and are more attached to their phone . Other results showed that text messaging is the most time consuming activity (94.6 minutes per day) The second most consuming activity is checking and sending emails (48.5 minutes), followed by checking Facebook (38.6 minutes), followed by surfing the web (34.4 minutes) followed by listening to music (26.9 minutes), these being the most commonly ways to use a cellphone. This shows us that college students in their early 20’s could be addicted to their cellphones. After taking a look at the charts I began to notice that I do spend a lot of time on my phone and I am beginning to think that we do have a problem when it comes to using our cellphone. Cellphones are affecting society, making it easier and faster accessibility to information, this is making us lazier human beings, The results of the study shows that college students are becoming more dependent on cellphones more and more as time passes.