Technology Zombies: The Cell Phone

What do we think of when we hear the word “addiction”? Traditionally, images of needles, drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol flash through one’s mind, but in our digital world, addiction has a new face.  Modern communication and entertainment technology including cell phones, Facebook, and online gaming have invaded our communities, our homes, and our schools.  This may come as no surprise to the average reader.  Chances are that you have a Facebook account, you have a cell phone on your body or within two feet of you, and you can gain access to Facebook using that cell phone.  How many times have you gone to a movie theatre and when prompted to turn your cell phone off you only turn it to silent, if not vibrate?  What about a lecture hall, a social gathering, your work, an interview, a wedding, or even a funeral?  We just can’t seem to disconnect.

http://cellphonesunder50.blogspot.com/

If the task of disconnecting is difficult for today’s adult, imagine how a teenager must feel when asked to put his or her's cell phone away.  These “digital natives” have grown up surrounded by and using computers, video-games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age (Prensky, 2001).  According to a 2010 study, 75% of teenagers have a cell phone (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, Zickuhr, 2010). This means in your class of 30 students there is approximately 22 cell phones sending and receiving information in the form of texts, tweets, chats, pokes, messages, and bbm’s. 

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Not only are cell phones a distraction in the classroom, they can also have a major impact on your health.  Radiofrequency electromagnetic waves (RF-EMW)has been shown to produce negative effects on the human body including increased heart rate and blood pressure, altered cognitive function, altered melatonin secretion, decreased sperm motility and viability, possible increased astrocytoma and acoustic neuroma tumor formation, as well as fatigue, burning near the ear, headache, numbness, tingling, and decreased concentration (Agarwal, 2008).  Unfortunately, this long list of health concerns is usually of little concern to the self-perceiving invincible teen.

You would think that a device meant to increase communication would actually increase communicational skills, but evidence shows that it may actually be doing the opposite.  I’m sure most of us can relate to the teenagers who feel social anxiety in face-to-face interactions; after all, adolescence is a time of growing and learning how to act in social situations.  The problem here is that text messaging and other instant messaging technologies are being used by teenagers to avoid unpleasant situations and even replace face-to-face communication (Pierce, 2009).  While these technologies allow youth to communicate safely and with time to think of appropriate and thoughtful responses, only time will tell if it this delays the acquisition of communication skills developed in face-to-face interactions.

If you are not concerned about protecting your students, then at least protect yourself.  With just a click of a few buttons on a smartphone, a student can shoot a video or take a picture, post that video to YouTube, and share the link with his or her friends without ever leaving their seat.  This has been an added source of stress for many teachers who fear that students may share videos or pictures of themselves for the rest of the world to see.  Some students may even go to the lengths of creating elaborately edited videos, shot over several days, which use popular soundtracks and sound effects to poke fun at their teachers (Honawar, 2007).  In one case, a teacher in Scotland was unknowingly filmed in the classroom and posted to YouTube under the title “you are dead”.

I’m starting to make cell phones sound like an inherent evil, well they’re not.  They have their purpose; they act as the world’s longest umbilical cord, conveniently connecting parents with their children at all times.  They do not, however, have any purpose in the classroom.  Sure they can act as calculators, dictionaries, web browsers, and a million and one other uses, but their primary function is to be a distraction.  Whether on the desk, in the pocket or backpack the burning link between mind and phone is difficult for any student to resist. 

My advice to any teacher who sees that cell phones are taking over their classrooms is as follows.  First, step up your game!  You have to bring the students’ attention to you and what you are teaching.  Secondly, at the beginning of every class have ALL students turn in their cell phones to you to hold onto for the length of the class.  There is no reason for them to be contacted or try and contact anyone else.  Parents should not be bugging their students during school and whatever urgencies seem to be at hand will still be there when class is over.  You WILL face resistance to this, but in time, it is my hope that students see the joy in letting go. 

Remember if you cannot give up control of your possessions, they control you.

References:

Agarwal, A. (2009). Cell Phones: Modern Man’s Nemesis? Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Vol. 18 Issue 1, Pages 148-157. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy2.lib.umanitoba.ca/ehost/detail?hid=106&sid=3fc58883-c8a6-4c66b268783937a04857%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=44428345

Honawar, V. (2007). Cellphones in Classrooms Land Teachers on Online Video Sites. Education Week, 02774232, Vol. 27, Issue 11. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy2.lib.umanitoba.ca/ehost/detail?hid=106&sid=b2f0550e-7a79-497b-9b0b-fc4dda087b4a%40sessionmgr114&vid=2&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=27465009

Lenhart, A., Purcell, K, Smith, A., & Zickuhr, K. Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults. PewInternet & American Life Project. Available from http://uploadi.www.ris.org/editor/1267315614PIP_Social_Media_and_Young_Adults_Report.pdf

Pierce, T. (2009). Social Anxiety and Technology: Face-to-face Communication versus Technological Communication Among Teens. Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 25, Issue 6, Pages 1367-1372. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy2.lib.umanitoba.ca/ehost/detail?hid=106&sid=9f01397d-1d9b-4f51-8ff7-4ad9fd0e8f41%40sessionmgr104&vid=2

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf