Chris Muoghalu
Michael Pennell
WRD 210
April 9th, 2017
Distractions with Cell Phones
According to the journal Social Psychology, cell phones have been a great distraction in our lives and have greatly increased over the years. In the study, which was taken from a group of more than 50 college students, the students were asked to complete different motor tasks with the study leader’s cell phone visible. In the second part of the study, the students completed motor tasks with their own cell phones visible. They wanted to see whether a phone in sight can distract from what someone is able to do. They then tested the performance on complex with no visible cell phone. It was seen that it was much more difficult to complete the tasks.
With that being stated it’s easy to realize that the presence of cell phones and technology affect us in our everyday lives. For many it can be seen as a negative effect because we are so consumed in our cell phones it is difficult for us to live in present time. It is almost as if we are so interested on what is going on inside our phones that what’s going on in the real world isn’t a priority anymore. As a society we have naturally gravitated toward a technology dependant people. This study also allows us to realize that with social media and technology like cellphones at an arm’s reach, in public we are less likely to socialize with our peers. In an article Justin Worland wrote, “Mobile communication devices such as phones may, by their mere presence, paradoxically hold the potential to facilitate as well as to disrupt human bonding and intimacy.” that just goes to explain that with technology in our life we really forget that we are living in an actual life because we are too invested in something that doesn’t really matter. Cell phones play a large role in today’s social engagement, but the study suggests that people just put the device away for awhile. Many times what is going on on a cell phone or laptop isn’t that important or urgent. It is something that could wait, but either way as humans we feel the need to get to it right then and there. That in turn hinders our social skills, which is something we greatly lack in the present days. Also we learned that aside from being on the phone all the time but having the phone out interrupted interpersonal closeness and trust and kept study participants from feeling empathy for one another. Just to further explain how involved in our phones as a society we are from the visual we can see that us Americans are much more invested in our phones than those of other countries. It is a drastic difference as the other three countries listed aren’t even over 100 million users but as americans we are pushing 350 million. It really looks like that is an exaggerated amount because it is such a big number, but if you go anywhere and look around a great majority of people will be picking up, putting down, or currently using their cell phone. So doing research on this topic our society is widely distracted by our technology, and yes that’s bad, but as a society we’ve migrated toward making everything technologically friendly. Now you can do just about anything and everything on your cell phone, so time is basically just changing with the society.
