Importance Of Cell Phone Usage In Social Settings

Cell Phone Usage in Social Settings
The general consensus about cell phone usage is that they are a distraction to most individuals. Cell phones can make even the simplest task increasingly difficult, such as walking. When walking without a phone, it is easy to avoid any form of collision or slippery area, but when walking and texting, the risk of self-injury becomes higher as attention is drawn away from what lies ahead when walking. The connectivity that cell phones can bring leads to many distractions in people’s daily lives, including distractions at work, places of learning, and especially in social settings.
Cell phones are used heavily by today’s young adults, mainly those 18-25 in age. These individuals have had phones present in life

The age group of 18-25 has grown around cell phone use and social networking, which offer no form of physical contact when communicating. Using this faceless interaction could lead to deterioration of social skills. Reading a conversation, rather than actually speaking to another person, requires less social skill (Jin, B., & Park, N., 2013). When individuals have been communicating this way for so long, it becomes a habit, resulting in people today to have cell phones present at all times; no matter where an individual is, the virtual connection to others never lost. Additionally, when using a cell phone for communication, it allows the user time to process what was read and how to respond to it, thus giving the user the feeling of control over how a conversation is going (Madell, & Muncer, 2007). Madell and Muncer also continued with an individual’s control over virtual conversations by addressing response times of the people involved. At any time, an individual can initiate a conversation or start a topic for multiple contributors, but when the participants are not physically present, the response time to the discussion can vary heavily. This, however, may not be such a detriment to the present group around the phone user. With the freedom to respond whenever possible, it allows the individuals in the virtual discussion to

(2014) investigated the usage of cell phones based on gender. They obtained information on what the cell phone was being used for, revealing that women are more likely to use a cell phone for social networking purposes, males tend to retrieve information (Wei & Lo, 2006 as cited in Forgays et al, 2014). This information can also be paired with findings from Haverila (2011), who discovered that females have a greater tendency to use cell phones (Jenaro et al., 2007 as cited in Haverila, M., 2011). These results would lead one to believe that women would spend more time on the phone than men as women would be on social media sites, which would take up more time than just looking up a piece of information.
The present observations were centered on gender differences in cell phone usage. I observed young adults, age range of 18 to 25, who are believed to be the prime candidates for cell phone usage. The purpose of the observation was to investigate gender differences in length of cell phone use, and the hypothesis was that women would spend more time on cell phones than men in a social setting.