Originally published: . Volume 8, No. 4. Source pages: 9.
Every morning you wake up, and similar to over 95% of the U.S. population, before going to the restroom or even saying good morning to your spouse, you perform a select behavior, not typified of people 40 years ago. That is, you check your cell phone for calls, texts, emails, and other communication. Indeed, cell phones have become a definitive part of our culture.
We have expanded how we use cell phones, encompassing their use not only for communication, but for ordering food, setting up schedules, checking weather, logging activities, and many other uses. As cell phones enhance our lives and make our lives efficient, they must similarly be viewed not only as a tool, but as a device that has implications.
Fifty years ago, the government, psychologists, and human development specialists were concerned and worried about the effects of television on human development. Several proposed that television would reduce children’s likelihood to play, promoting obesity, and also offer an increased influence over childhood cognitive development, as children’s minds may be influenced by what they saw on television.
Today, these same concerns apply to cell phones.
Cell phones have changed how children communicate, incorporating emoji images and texts messages into daily communication mediums. “Meeting up” has been replaced with FaceTime and synchronous texting. The daily demand to meet face-to-face to establish relationships, solve problems, and enhance rapport represents a secondary alternative to purely electronic transmittals.
Definitively, cell phone use has affected how children learn. E- books have replaced paper books. Pen-and-paper tests replaced online exams. Internet searches have replaced gathering a pocketful of nickels and heading to the library to copy an article. However, children are able gather information quickly,
check for spelling and grammar easily, and assess for plagiarism problems more easily than the past.
Even parenting is affected: A fourth of household accidents relate to parental cell phone use and concurrent failure to monitor children.
Consider the features that most often accompany addiction for substances, such as the need to obtain a substance, increasing amount of substance needed to become satiated, and loss or replacement of socialization, all revealing concurrent feelings perhaps attributable with cell phone use. Consider the circumstance, in which your cell phone is lost—you most likely become agitated, your blood pressure will rise, you become irritable, you stop all activities until your cell phone is found or replaced. Cell phone addiction represents a real behavioral concern, representing an area of research focus among numerous cognitive and clinical psychologists today.
Time will dictate how these new communication patterns will affect relationships, development and conflict resolution.
Perhaps the most frequently considered effect of cell phone use on day-to-day life is how cell phones distract us from our daily lives. Defined, distraction refers to something that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else.
Researchers have examined effects of cell phone use on distracted walking. Greater than 1,000 accident happen annually that are associated with individuals failing to pay attention to their environment while walking. The Pew Research Center reports that 53 percent of adult cell phone users have directly fallen or been pushed by a distracted walker.
While distracted walking represents an area of concern, cell phone use while driving represents a momentous public health concern. Statistically, based on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 10 percent of all drivers aged 15-90 were distracted at the time of a reported fatal crash. Moreover, the frequency of these risky behaviors is not decreasing. The NHTSA reports that the percentage of drivers texting or manipulating their hand-held devices increased from 1.7 percent in 2013, to 2.2 percent in 2014. Considering a .05 percent increase every years, NHTSA data suggests that it is estimated that about 4% of drivers aged 16 to 24 are texting while driving.
Local research suggests these estimates are low. Research completed at our Forensic Cognition Laboratory, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL), shows that 35 percent of younger drivers report to using a cell phone while driving.
However, research shows that this number is still perhaps even greater. Research Assistant, Ms. Lauren Short, and I are examining and comparing perceived versus observed cell phone use while driving among college students. We placed dashcam cameras in students’ cars to observe actual driving by students. Preliminary data suggest that 95 percent of the participants use their cell phone while driving, at least on an occasional basis. Moreover, preliminary data suggests that while driving approximately 15 percent of the time driving, or nine minutes out of every 60 minutes driving, is associated to cell phone distraction.
Does a quick text or answering an important call really make a difference? Yes, very much so. Consider the distance that a car travels while you return the simple text. A vehicle travels the length of a football field in five seconds. Checking a text message equates 15 seconds, or traveling three football fields, blindfolded.
April is Distracted Driving Awareness month, offering an opportunity for not only the general public, but also
psychologists and others in our field to consider how cell phone distraction affects human behavior across a variety are areas, such as development, cognitive, social, and others.
One valuable resource is the Forensic Cognition Laboratory at ULL Lafayette. The lab evaluates not only how cell phone distraction affects driving behavior, but also learning, parenting, and socialization.
Cell phones represent a technological advancement, perhaps equitable to fire or the wheel. While it has enhanced our lives, we must similarly be aware that it offers a distraction, limiting our ability to perform daily tasks and behaviors. As specialists in human behavior, we must be aware of the potential for addiction and also impaired parenting, communication, task-behavior, parenting and relating.
April offers an opportunity to remind ourselves and perhaps others of the encompassing effects of cell phone usage.
[Editor’s Note: Dr. Smith, along with his lab researchers, has authored Cell Phone Distraction, Human Factors, and Litigation, published by Judges and Lawyers Publishing. Cell Phone Distraction addresses a wide variety of topics on this topic and has been vetted by a variety of law libraries, including, Yale, Texas A & M, and Standford, and also internationally, becoming incorporated into law libraries in both Singapore and Malaysia. Dr. Smith can be reached at Theodore S. Smith, tss1065@louisiana.edu)]
Dr. Scott Smith
(
C
o
u
r
t
e
s
y
p
h
o
t
o
)
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.