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Contextual Effects Of Cell Phones Use On Students

According to Isikler et al. (2013), 87% of the world’s population uses cell phones to do everything from making calls and texting to playing games and taking pictures. Many studies about cellular phone use begin with statistics similar to those outlined by Isikler that demonstrate the pervasiveness of cell phone technology, and most of them usually focus on students as a group that is perhaps most affected by constant cell phone use. However, it is not so easy for most researchers to immediately see cause and effect relationships due to these young individuals’ cell phone use. For example, Nathan and Zeitzer (2013) found how students experienced no measurable increase in their daily fatigue due to the number of messages and calls they receive. Thus there is a lack of predictable results that show an exaggerated significance of something in the effects of cell phone use in adolescent youth and especially young adults. Several studies show that cell phone use at times when other important activities are not meant for, such as studying, socializing, and sleeping, is commonly related to other struggles of adolescence: insensitivity, poor self-worth, inertia, and fatigue.

One reason scientists are so inclined to think that cell phones used during class hours and studying have an adverse effect on students is that it is a certain fact, it is not clearly coming to the fore. A higher percentage of students admit to using cell phones while driving than those who use cell phones in scheduled class hours, 99 vs. 97 percent, respectively. To test this habit, Elder (2013) took students through a laboratory experiment where they listened to a short lecture followed by a similar mini-quiz. He asked half of the students to use their cell phones during the lecture while the rest listened attentively without any distracting technology. Next, when Elder sees that all the students scored lower than believed, one might think that the hypothesis was disproved. But Elder comes up with some ways to make things odd. First, students did not care enough to listen to the mini-lecture during the study time, and this was ultimately the reason they failed the quiz during the post-lecture period. This neglect—which led to all average students being distracted students—played a role in the results not being deeply disturbing because all students in the sample were disinterested. Equally, the mini-lecture was actually too short, lasting only 12 minutes in duration, for the depth of some type of real-world instructional, i.e., regular-school-style learning. He therefore concluded, “Constant multi-tasking during long lectures is more analogous to the way students actually engage with their phones during courses.” Elder’s research shows how distraction and inattention are some of the real culprits for poor academic performance. Cell phone use may contribute to these behaviors, but many other factors also have the same ability to divert a learner’s attention from ongoing learning.

Equally, youth’s cellphone use and self-perceptions lack the often assumed direct relationship. Consequently, cell phone use does not directly affect self-worth. Yet one has posited that cellphone abuse may worsen such a state of disconnection, leading to various emotionally negative aspects. Isikler and colleagues (2013) intended to investigate the relationship between cell phone use and self-esteem. They believed that “addiction is a strong and valid cause as far as isolation and missing out on a mobile phone are concerned.” The key elements of addiction were: “exclusion from the social environment” and “feeling anxiety [whenever] it is stopped by the object of affection.” Therefore, when cell phone use reaches addictive levels there is a degradation of self-worth, which would affect a person addicted to any other drug. The problem is not the fact and use of cell phone technology, but the excessive use of such devices in place of human interaction.

Some researchers argue that mobile phones can cause other problems such as sleep disorders. Therefore, when Nathan and Zeitzer surveyed young people on the relationship between cell phone use and sleep quality, they predicted that an increased number of calls would indeed be related to “increased sleepiness” (2013) as their hypothesis suggested. As expected, they found a relationship between prolonged cell-phone use at night and certain components that they speculated had a higher likelihood of interrupting nighttime sleep due to continued fatigue – thus, staying up late to use their phones and “expectations of availability. This was confirmed by the fact that nearly 50 percent of the high school students surveyed had experienced unexplained and sudden awakenings from sleep due to cell phones, and, more than nearly the entire survey sample, except for 1 percent, felt they would need to be available on the phone whenever possible. This included students who had difficulty concentrating in class, so up to 14% were tired from their cell phone use, Nathan and Zeitzer concluded, “Our analysis specifies that the use or perceived need for mobile phone use during normal sleep hours is associated with sleepiness during daytime waking periods.” Not that there are any other immediate effects from using a cell phone in general or even afterward. This is the problem that affects students to use their mobile phones during free time at school instead of engaging in some other beneficial activity.

Dependence on cell phones has serious consequences for students who are struggling with problems in studies, self-esteem, and fatigue. According to research, cell phones are indeed the one thing that is causing the emergence of all these problems among humans; however, it should be noted that such a relationship is also complex and context-specific in terms of cause and effect – even for cell phones and young people. Considering general use as controversial may seem exaggerated because the problems associated with cell phones are caused by many more specific circumstances under which these problems arise than by this device itself. Therefore, changes in technology that will bridge the gap between technology and users really matter because it affects about 87% of people with regular cell phones.

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