Thesis on "Cell Phone Addictiveness"

Thesis 7 pages (2044 words) Sources: 1+ Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Cell Phones in Modern Society and Human Behavior

Cellular telephones have changed many aspects of contemporary American society. Technology that was completely unavailable to ordinary consumers as recently as two decades ago has become so ubiquitous today that not owning a cell phone is almost as surprising as finding a "mobile phone" installed in a car twenty years ago. Cell phones are so common today that public schools have had to initiate formal policies prohibiting their inappropriate use during school hours, even for middle school and grade school children.

The increasing reliance on cell phones for expanded communications services beyond direct communications has even generated complex constitutional concerns in relation to the Fourth Amendment in particular. That becomes an issue when law enforcement authorities take possession of cell phones that retain volumes of personal information and records of previous calls that may trigger search and seizure violations if they are "data mined" without a warrant issued by a court (Bulzomi, 2007).

The incorporation of multimedia capabilities in cell phones has fundamentally changed the way the average person communicates within family and social networks and related trends such as texting have changed elements of the way many people interact even in person. In Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter (2005), Author Steven Johnson makes the argument that while much criticism has been directed at the increasing role of high-tech entertainment and media in society, most aspects of modern media and computer technology-based entertainment actually contribute positively to the development of complex cognitive processes and intellectual abilities. Johnson suggests that even some of the entertainment forms that are presumed to be largely wastes of time or even detrimental to intellectual development actually stimulate neurological activity and growth in a manner that is much more beneficial than harmful.

Much of what Johnson writes about technology and entertainment media in general also applies to the modern uses of cell phones, but other aspects of cell phone use may fall completely outside of the author's positive characterization. In some respects, even Johnson would have to concede that cell phones also contribute to certain types of behavioural dependency, social inconsideration, dangers to others, and dangers to others. Finally, like other activities that provide a pleasure component, cell phones also have the potential to become addictive for some users through some of the same neurological mechanisms detailed by Johnson in connection with the positive aspects of modern media and entertainment technologies in society.

The Premise of Johnson's Thesis

The basic premise of Johnson's work is that like most other elements of contemporary society, even modern entertainment has become considerably more complex than it used to be, including even the plots of television programs that are widely considered to have little redeeming social value beyond gratuitous entertainment (Johnson, 2005). According to Johnson, all forms of entertainment stimulate the mind of the consumer and more complex forms of entertainment have a beneficial effect in terms of stimulating neurological development in much the same ways that empirical research has established the developmental value of providing infants with rich stimulating environments.

The process of neurological growth stimulated by experiences does not stop in infancy; rather, it continues throughout life. As a result, the increasing complexity of movies, television, and computer-based gaming all contribute to intellectual development by stimulating correspondingly complex neural networking in response to the external stimuli provided by more complex entertainment and communication experiences made possible by the wide availability of affordable modern technology (Johnson, 2005).

Changing Telephone Habits in American Society

Cellular Telephones

As recently as the early 1990s, cellular telephones were still an expensive, high-end novelty item that were largely impractical for personal use because of their cost, their size, and the relative unavailability of any signal (Evans, 2004). By the end of the decade, cell phones had begun to replace pagers because their price had come down from the level of high-end novelty, their size had been reduced to make them reasonably portable and signal availability had made them more reliable and convenient to rely on for communications (Evans, 2004).

A decade later, cell phones have become so common, affordable, and reliable that they have already begun replacing traditional land-lines for many users. Today, it is not uncommon for children to receive cell phones as early as middle school or grade school and by the time they are in high school, virtually all students who are not living at or below the poverty line have a cell phone long before they reach their senior years (Corbett, 2008). In fact, the cell phone has become such an important factor in ordinary life that in some of the most impoverished regions of the so-called Third World, analysts are now reporting that in many cases, the availability of cell phones has become one of the greatest improvement in the ability of millions of people in impoverished regions to support themselves (Corbett, 2008). To Johnson, this would suggest that in addition to benefiting individuals, this positive aspect of modern communications technology is on the verge of changing the economic realties for entire civilizations in some parts of the world where such improvements are most necessary.

Neurological Concepts of Pleasure & Reward and Social Habit

Pleasure and Reward

Johnson (2005) details the manner in which virtually all forms of pleasurable entertainment stimulate primitive cognitive processes that reinforce behaviors that produce pleasure and condition the brain to continue pursuing those forms of entertainment. In the case of cell phones in particular, this is more likely applicable to their gaming and texting capabilities rather than specifically to their verbal communications capabilities mainly because talking on cell phones is reinforced more by the same types of cognitive processes as face-to-face conversations rather than by the deeper (or more primitive) pleasure and reward process (Johnson, 2005).

However, with respect to the use of cell phones for gaming and texting, the evidence strongly suggests that these applications can have both beneficial and potentially detrimental effects on users. On the positive side, both computer gaming and cell phone versions of that form of entertainment can increase certain types of cognitive skills such as those required to operate high-tech transportation equipment and other devices that rely on three-dimensional user interfaces and hand-eye coordination (Johnson, 2005). On the negative side, the involvement of the pleasure and reward mechanism also creates a potential for certain users who are already inclined toward obsessive or addictive behaviors to spend excessive amounts of time on various cell phone applications, often at expense to other areas of responsibilities (Johnson, 2005).

The Force of Social Habit, Perceptions, and Trends

Undoubtedly, there are also social elements that can contribute to the overuse of or addiction to cell phones. First, as with any other habit, users often become dependent on having access to any mechanism of convenience. Whereas twenty years ago nobody seemed to think that pay telephones were insufficient for their communication needs when outside of their homes, today, few people who own cell phones leave their homes without them.

Second, again, as is also the case with other social trends (and short-term fads) perception plays a very significant role in establishing what the average person considers "normal" or "necessary" (Myers & Spencer, 2004). Therefore, when cell phones were just a high-tech novelty, few people considered them a necessity to acquire. However, as they became more and more visible and common, the same social mimicry responsible for the propagation of other trends made cell phones something that everyone considered necessary to have and even somewhat embarrassing not to have when it seemed that "everyone else" owns a cell phone (Myers & Spencer, 2004).

Negative Consequences Unrelated to Complexity

Psychological Dependency and Social Posturing

There also seem to be fairly obvious and significant issues of social dependency and posturing that also play a role in the tremendous popularity of cell phones and the degree to which many people overuse them in an addictive fashion. It is well-known, for example, that people in social situations tend to be uncomfortable being alone when in the presence of large groups of other people, especially when many of those people are accompanied by friends and acquaintances (Myers & Spencer, 2004). In that respect, using a cell phone in public often serves the same purpose as taking a friend along.

Specifically, in the mind of the individual, it is more comfortable to be seen talking to someone than it is to be seen alone; therefore, many people use cell phones as a social crutch to fill the same role as a companion in situations where they are uncomfortable appearing to others to be alone. This reliance can also be used as a form of social display for the specific purpose of impressing others, which seems to explain why so many cell phone users tend to talk inappropriately loud in public when using cell phones (Myers & Spencer, 2004).

Social Responsibility and Public Consideration

That particular aspect of cell phone use has generated various… READ MORE

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