Cell Phone Overuse Or Addiction?

The world of technology has been rapidly increasing since the 1900s. When the cell phone was invented in the 1970s, nobody could have imagined how far they have come. What was once a luxury item is now an item that is rare to not have. With the widespread usage of cell phones comes the problem of addiction. The issue has become so bad scientists have keyed the term “nomophobia” as the fear of being out of reach of your mobile cell phone and the Internet. The world has slowly became more of an online world. Shopping, socializing and work are all made easier by the Internet and cell phones. This means shoppers do not have to leave the comfort of their home to actually go out and take care of issues on their own. With children being

Over the years, cell phone addiction has gained public attention. There are several reasons why this case can attract some many researchers to study this.. First of all, mobile phone is new technology and some people have curiosity. They try to understand what will happen when they download new cell phone application. Studying in this field would allow business corporation to earn much money. Second, certain mobile phone behaviors are considered to be problematic, such as using a hand-held cell phone while driving, or violating privacy accident due to cell phone. Some countries have legislative control to ban cell phone in a variety of settings, including hospitals, planes, and pertol station,

Technology has impacted and influenced how people function and devote their time immensely. With the creation of smartphones, computers, and social networks, people have adopted them into their lives and use them daily, which creates a dependence on these devices. An immoderate dependence upon technology is a state that humanity has come to in today’s age that permits people to believe that they essentially cannot function without it. The fear of not having one’s cellphone or being in a position where one’s cellphone cannot be used, whether it be because of a dead battery or having no signal, is known as nomophobia. This phobia can be described as a cell phone separation anxiety. Even though technology

That feeling of when one has momentarily misplaced their smartphone creates a sense of panic that can only be compared to withdrawal symptoms of someone without the source of their addiction. Richtel brings up an interesting correlation between the decline of drug use in teenagers and the rise of using smartphones becoming the status quo. This question is something that is entirely probable when the thought of behavioral addiction comes into play. Social psychologist Adam Alter who was interviewed by Claudia Dreifus in her article, describes addiction as “something you enjoy doing in the short term, that undermines your well-being in the long term — but that you do compulsively anyway”. Smartphones are something that most people use as a way of passing the time or for procrastination. This dependency is built over time with the smartphone; for example, while 30 minutes scrolling through Instagram occasionally seems harmless, it becomes habitual when this is the thing you reach for every time you have a free minute or two. Slowly we as a society, and most especially teenagers who have only known this their entire lives, have become dependent on the convenience of

Everywhere I look, I see a person grasping onto their phone. Leaving the house in the morning with a cell phone has become as important as eating breakfast. The article, Half of Teens Think They’re Addicted to Their Smartphones, written by Kelly Wallace describes the feelings of teens and adults towards their cell phones. “Two-thirds of parents -- 66% -- feel their teens spend too much time on their mobile devices” (Wallace). Unfortunately, these teens would prefer to communicate through a screen rather than face-to-face.

In “Jessie Brown: Who Says Smartphone Addiction is bad thing? The case for constant connectivity” (Brown, 2012), Brown claims that the cellphone is not the problem, in fact, it is the person and how they choose to value their time while using smartphones.

Vivek Agarwal and Sujit Kumar Kar in their editorial, “Technology Addiction in Adolescents”, profess that the technology and gadgets are utilized for communication and entertainment but that it leads to unhealthy addictions and behaviors. They support their claim by first stating that it is mainly affecting young population by how it is directed to make tasks easier, then by implying that cell phones are hand held devices that encourage internet addiction and that this leads to unhealthy isolation and low self esteem. Agarwal and Kar inform us about the people in our generation and they suggest that we need to bring about change in this addiction, and the use of technology could

One of every ten students around the world has symptoms cell phone addiction, and 68.8% of all students believe in the adverse effects of cell phones (Al-Barashdi 2015). Cell phones are an everyday tool that just about every college student in the United States owns. Cell phones are extremely useful in many regards, but very disadvantageous in others. U.S. college students, once studied from an anthropological standpoint, can provide important facts about how human beings are responding to technological advances in cell phones. My study centers on one overarching question: how do U.S. university students use their cell phones?

There is a growing problem that could reach epidemic levels in the next ten years. It's an addition effecting men, woman and children. We're talking about cell phone addiction. You might question the validity of this, but when you stop and really think about how far we have come with the advances of cell phones, the dots start to connect; the amount of people using phones, the purpose of the phone, how the younger generation perceives their phone and the profits to be made by large and small companies, leading us to draw a not so pretty picture. It’s a newer addition to society, not drug based one, but more of a compulsion addiction. In general, not a lot of research has been done in regards to this obsession, but it’s only a matter of time. Most of the worst offenders will deny that they have a problem, yet the simple thought of losing their phone sends them into a state of panic. This obsessive, panicked feeling already has a name, it’s called nomophobia. Wikipedia terms this new phobia as the fear of being without your mobile phone. A research group in the United Kingdom is credited for inventing this term after conducting a study on how cell phones affect a person’s anxiety levels (2014).

Do you suffer from nomophobia or cell phone vibration syndrome? In other words do you fear being without your phone or missing a text? If so you are not alone. “46% of smartphone owners say their smartphone is something they couldn’t live without” (Anderson). Americans say that they are dependent on their phones because it is their access point to the Internet. This number keeps increasing because of technological advancements. According to Jacob Davidson in the article “Here’s How Many Internet Users There Are”, it states that there are around 3 billion people accessing the Internet (Davidson). The Internet is something that everyone feels they need in their everyday life. It is our main source of information. If there is a question asked, most people will say “google it” to find out the answer. The Internet is a good thing that can provide instant answers, but when it’s use is combined with social apps and texting, cell phone addiction can occur.

According to CQ Researcher, due to the growing of the Internet as the primary medium for commerce, entertainment and social communications, Americans are using more electronic media than ever. Technology supplies, such as cell-phones, Internet, and computers become the necessity of human beings life. Each individual depends on the technology supplies so much, so it is not only creating expectations that people will be available to work at virtually any time of the night or day, but also causing serious addictions like playing video games or feeling nervous to go out without a phone. There is now a serious debate going on within therapeutic circles about whether people can become addicted to the technology in the way that they might become addicted to chemical substances. Besides these problems, also there is a broader debate taking place about whether the technology is going to changing the way people think, or using the abbreviations too much. Especially for instant messaging, people wanted to save time and text faster, so that instant messages

Due to the modern advancements in technology we have new terminology that has also been created and adapted to cover the variety of changes that come with living a technologically advanced society. Technology addiction definition has adapted for our modern day society from just regular addiction. Technology addiction is the compulsive reaction or over use of technology in any form with little regulation or self-control displayed when using it (“Digital addict,” n.d.). Sadly one of the new words that has been added our modern vocabulary is Nomophobia. Nomophobia is a term that describes people who feel uncomfortable, anxious, and or nervous, when they cannot or are unable to use their cell phone. Nomophobia is another aspect technology addiction (Nagpal & Kaur, 2016).

As humans we are social creatures who thirst for interaction with others. With the creation of the cell phone, being able to do this has become incredibly easy. Unlike in the past, where one had to venture out of their home to communicate with others, today, it is as simple as the press of a button. More importantly, this results in quick fulfillment -- the ability to send a text and receive a reply in mere seconds provides people with instant gratification. Dr. Susan Weinschenk describes the process as a “dopamine induced loop [where] dopamine starts you seeking, then you get rewarded for the seeking which makes you seek more” (Firestone, 2017). With the constant update of having something new appear on the cellphone screen, there is an increased desire to review the contents of the notification. As a result, it is truly an ordeal to continually check and look through the phone until all notifications are cleared. The mobile device can be seen as the primary method of communication for people today, especially in adolescents. So much so that new pathologies are emerging such as “Nomophobia (No-Mobile Phobia and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) - the fear of missing out and disconnected [off] the Internet” (De-Sola Gutiérrez, Rodríguez de Fonseca & Rubio, 2016). These conditions exemplify the necessity of phones throughout the course of the day and how integrated they are in society’s daily life. Ultimately, it stems from the ease of access where news and connection to friends is instantaneous and readily accessible. Although refraining from checking the phone is difficult, there are methods that can be utilized to help. For example, using an application to

The smartphone is still a fairly new invention and is constantly being developed and improved. This device has integrated itself into our culture and is slowly becoming essential to our lives. The younger generation known as "Millennials" in the age range of 18-35 years old check their cell phones on average about 75.6 times a day (Soto et al., 2017). This number is exceptionally high when compared to the older generation who only check their phone around 23 times a day, according to the same research. This paper will cover cell phone addiction and its effects on the college students lifestyle. Addiction in this case is tied with the substance use criteria in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5). In the criteria it states that substance use is "a pathological pattern of behaviors related to use of the substance." Extremely high smartphone use can lead to these behaviors where dependency is an issue.

If I were to ask each of you if you were able to go an entire day without your mobile device, very few can say they`d be able to do so. In fact, in a recent TIME Magazine Mobility Poll, 84% out of 5000 people surveyed in 8 different countires, admitted that they couldn’t go a single day without their phones and a third of respondents admitted that being without their mobile device for even short periods of time leaves them feeling anxious. It is clear that whenever we`re waiting for those last five minutes before the bell rings to every class, our automatic impulse is to reach for our phone. Do you really need to check anything that important? The sad truth is that we have become far too dependent on our phones. The fear that we might miss the latest gossip, or the most recent updates on all of our social webesites seems more like an addiction than anything else. We`ve clouded our vision as to what is really important, and that is-quality human interaction.