Anxiety: The downside of cellphone usage to teens

Photo by: Camille Bautista from http://mashable.com/2013/03/13/teen-cellphone/

    Technologies of today are very useful to make our daily living efficient and easy. However, Most of these technologies also have its negative effects to humans if not properly used especially now that the production for these items is increasing along with the demand for these products around the world. According to a science report posted in science daily last December 06, a study conducted by the researchers of Kent State University headed by Andrew Lepp, Ph.D. and his team showed that college students who uses cellular phones more often are the ones who experience a high level of anxiety, low life satisfaction and poor academic performance.

    The team surveyed more than 500 students representing all the courses and year level from the university. The team recorded the usage of cellphone of the respondents along with a clinical measure of anxiety and each student’s level of satisfaction with their own life. The researchers also asked permission to the respondents to access their academic records.

    Results of the analysis concluded that cell phone use was negatively related to GPA and positively related to anxiety. Following this, GPA was positively related to happiness while anxiety was negatively related to happiness. On the other hand, the population with higher frequency of cellphone usage has a tendency to to have lower GPA, higher anxiety and low life satisfaction with their lives compared to their peers who used cellphones rarely. According to the news, the statistical model illustrating these relationships is highly significant.

    Before when I was a child, I remember those times when my mom used to bring  me in the village park to play with my friends. We play hide and seek, "patintero", "luksong baka" and other traditional village games. The only gadget that was famous during that time was the Nintendo and only those who were financially capable had it. Though Nintendo was famous, children still my friends and I chose to play outside because of the interaction that we experienced from it and not to mention the endless laughter. I think, the generation of today became so fascinated with gadgets that they almost forgot that interaction between two persons personally is much better than interaction mediated by these gadgets. These issue should also call the attention of the parents to let their children experience the real outside world instead of supplementing their child with gadgets because it can affect the social orientation of the child. Again, any modern technology has its own downside. If we do not know how to use it properly it might affect the way we live our lives instead of using it as an aid.

Blogpost by: Alexis Perez Dujua

Reference:

1. Andrew Lepp, Jacob E. Barkley, Aryn C. Karpinski. The relationship between cell phone use, academic performance, anxiety, and Satisfaction with Life in college students. Computers in Human Behavior, 2014; 31: 343 DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.049