The Negative Effects Of Cell Phones

Cell phones are undoubtedly one of the best inventions in the history of mankind. They basically give us access to the whole world right there at our finger tips. We can search for whatever we want in a matter of seconds, talk to anyone on almost every inch of the globe, and we can do countless other things. In a nutshell, cell phones have definitely made many areas of our lives easier. However, cell phones are damaging one aspect of our day to day lives. They may give us extraordinary access to the cyber world but they are damaging our connection to the real world right in front of us. The usage of cell phones has negatively impacted interpersonal relationships. I’m sure everyone can think back to a time where they’ve been in a room full of friends and instead of everyone talking with each other; the room was quiet because everyone was on their phones. I’ve been in this situation plenty of times. It seems as though people would rather be chatting with people online rather than talking to the people in front of their faces. Social network avenues such as Twitter and Facebook provide a gateway for people to be whatever or whomever they like. In other words, online, you have the freedom to disguise yourself into a socially accepted person. Furthermore, this leads to people becoming socially awkward. The more time a person spends on their phone talking to people on the internet, the less people skills one is likely to have. This explains why some people can carry on an interesting conversation through text message or social media, but can’t keep one going in person. It is because they haven’t had that exposure to people like they should have because they are spending too much time online. Practice makes perfect and if you aren’t talking to people in real life than you simply won’t be good at it. Aside from cell phone usage making interpersonal communication stagnant, people are actually choosing their cell phones over actual people. A poll conducted by Braun Research on behalf of Bank of America stated that out of 1000 people, 35% of them reported that they reach for their smart phone when they wake up in the morning as opposed to only 10% that reach for their lover. Although this poll only covers 1000 people, these numbers are still alarming because I believe these numbers can be generalized to a bigger pool of people. These findings tell us that instead of being in the warm embrace of their lover, people would rather be on their cellular devices. Furthermore, Dr. Radesky, a pediatrician specializing in child development studied 55 separate groups of parents and children eating at a restaurant. She reported that 40 of the 55 parents were on their phones for the majority of the meal. The attention that they were giving to their cell phones was impacting the children. Children with the chronic cell phone using parents were more likely to act out as a cry for attention. Finally, psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adar interviewed 1,000 kids asking their parents cell phone usage. Many of the kids reported feeling “sad, mad, angry, …show more content…
They’ll probably say something along the lines of: cell phone usage has in fact strengthened interpersonal communication because it allows people to stay in touch while they are away from each other. I believe that this is true but only to a certain extent. Cell phones do allow people to talk to each other when they don’t have the opportunity to be in each other’s presence. However, the problem and disconnect comes into play when people are in each other’s presence. What I mean by this is instead of enjoying the company of the people right in their faces, people would rather be talking to someone else who is not. Cell phones are making it to where people would rather communicate through text than in person. It doesn’t make any sense to tell someone how much you miss them through text message, but when you get the chance to meet up with that person, you’re emerged on the phone and not in their presence. So although cell phones make it easier to communicate to people you’re away from, they are damaging the communication between you and the person you’re with at the