Abstract
This
paper discusses about the cell phone usage in TTU students. In modern daily
life, cell phone is one of the essential things for everybody; we cannot
imagine that our life without cell phone life. In spring 2016 at Texas Tech
University, an academic writing class decided to investigate about young
generation’s cell phone usage. From this survey we could get cell phone usage
pattern and their thoughts. We found that the result shown that gender and age were main
factors of cell phone usage pattern. And also we found that TTU student’s
behaviors were not far differences from trend of modern people.
Keywords: cell phone, cell phone usage, students, campus,
Texas Tech University.
Introduction
Nowadays, many young people have developed close
relationships with their cell phone. They see a cell phone as part of their
life. We cannot deny that cell phones play a very important role in our lives. Cell
phones make our life easier and more convenient. We can do a lot of things with
cell phones. From internet to camera, cell phones are great for people in many
ways (Importance of mobile phone usage, 2015).
According to Pew Research Center survey results (Lenhart, 2015), almost
three-quarters of teens have or can access a cell phone. Sending text and
enjoying apps (i.e. Facebook, etc.) is perfectly fine. However, treating them
as though they are one of one’s closest friends is not a good idea. Developing
an unusually close relationship with a cell phone is unhealthy. A relationship
like this with a cell phone can lead to a reduction in interpersonal skills and
an inability to relate to ordinary people. Some prefer to play with a cell
phone rather than talk to their friends or parents and treat their cell phone
like a best friend. In addition, along with increasing cell phone usage, car
accidents caused by cell phones are also increasing. According to the Seo and Torabi (2004) results, as cell phone user increase,
the numbers of people who use their cell phones while driving is also
increased. They found that young drivers thought that talking and texting was
not a big deal to them. Especially, young generation cannot be much
aware of the danger of this behavior which is cell phone using while driving,
these days, and lots of people are getting hurt or killed. When people do
texting while driving, they cannot keep their eyes on the road. This behavior
can cause an accident. If they meet an unexpected situation when they are
texting, they get in trouble or even lose their life.
We are students who have taken an academic
writing course in Texas Tech University (TTU); we wanted to find out how TTU
students thought about cell phones and characteristics of their actual usage
patterns. Cell phone using while driving is getting serious problems than before,
we also focus on TTU student cell phone usage patterns while driving. TTU is
located in the middle of the west and about 31,000 (Student Counseling Center,
2015) students study here. We decided to do a survey on TTU students; through
this survey, we could explore TTU students' opinions about cell phone usage in
their lives. Our study had several sub-topics: cell phone and grade
relationships, using a cell phone while driving, cell phone usage patterns and
the way of cell phone communication. Among these categories, I was mainly focus
on the relationship between cell phones and young people's social relationships.
Also, I wanted to know the ways of cell phone usages in their daily life.
This study can be good basic information about
West Texas young people's thinking and usage patterns about cell phones.
Literature
review
In
modern society the cell phone is one of the essential parts of our life. From
psychology to economics, cell phones can influence every part of our life
(Luce, 2011). Recently Lenhart’s survey has shown that 91% of adults believe
that cell phones make their life easier and faster (Lenhart, 2010). As a
result, many people tend to rely on their cell phone. Especially the young
generation can get addicted to the cell phone. According to Professor Susan
Molleur’s study, they regard their cell phone as part of their body and in the
absence of it they feel like they lost part of their body (Alleyne, 2011). In
the study of relationships between cell phone and gender, women tend to use
their cell phone to maintain their relationships. As a result, women spend more
time on them than men (Kowalski, 2014). However, in religious activities, young adults tend to refuse to use
their cell phone (Brumley, 2015).
The author mentions that if they are using cell phone at church they thought
that the cell phone would disturb their religious activity. When people use a
cell phone, people tend to not pay attention to their surroundings (Lang,
2015). As a result people are in danger more often and careless about people
than before. And because of cell phones people can suffer from sleep disorder,
stress and mental health problems (Pedersen, 2012).
When
students use their cell phone in class, that behavior can affect students’ test
scores. That’s because using cell phones makes it hard to focus on the lecture
(Bjornsen, 2015). Since multi-featuring cell phones, that nowadays most people
are using, can have bad effect on people’s daily lives, some people prefer to
use flip phones (North, 2014), because they want to get away from flood of
medias. In spite of these side effects, still many people use cell phones. As
the number of cell phone users increases, there are many different kinds of
studies about relationships between cell phones and people’s behavior. Young
adults prefer to use text instead of calling; on the contrary, older people
tend to use call or email (Hyman, 2014). And men prefer to use their cell
phones for fun and to find information, but women use their cell phones to
maintain their social relationships (Kowalski, 2014). According to results of
American’s opinion about when is a good time for using a cell phone (Rainie, 2015), results can be divided two
parts. Most people agree to use a cell phone while walking, waiting or talking
on the public transportation. However, many people seem not to like when people
are involved in the social group, for example, having dinner with family,
meeting or when they are in a public place. I think these results cannot find
out what people actually do. These results just can show what people consider
to be ideal behavior. Everybody knows cell phone using while driving is not
good, but sometimes they do it. Therefore, we can expect to find what they are
actually doing in their daily life. In
terms of cell phone use while driving, young people thought that texting while
driving is safer than drunken driving (Copeland,
2010). There was some study about difference between drunken driving and
texting driving; the results were very surprising. Texting while driving is the
same as driving with a blood-alcohol content of
0.08%.
Based
on these previous studies results we found out cell phone can influence of our
life pattern as well as our mental condition.
Hypotheses
Based
on previous studies, I can make some hypotheses about cell phone usage patterns
of the young generation;
1.
TTU young students (<22) will prefer to use text rather than call.
2.
TTU women students will report that cell phone do not affect their social
relationships.
3.
TTU students will report when they do activities with religious purposes,
they tend to use less cell phones than usual.
4.
TTU students will report that young people are more likely to text while
they were driving.
5.
TTU younger students (<22) will report using cell phones in class more
often than older students (>22).
6.
TTU younger students (<22) are more likely to think cell phone use in
class can’t hurt their grade.
From these
basic hypotheses I will find out Texas Tech students’ cell phone usage patterns.
Methods
Nowadays cell phones are one of most essential
things in our lives. Cell phones can make our lives easy and convenient.
Especially the young generation tends to treat cell phones like their body.
Cell phones can have a huge effect on the young generation in good or bad ways.
So, we decided to take a survey to TTU students of what they thought and usages
patterns about the cell phones. Our survey’s main targets were TTU students;
each of writing class student had to take 13 surveys from 6 male and 6 female American
students, and one of them by themselves. TTU students consist of 64% Caucasian,
and 36% are from diverse populations. Texas resident students are approximately
84% and most TTU students are young people. Therefore, our results can
represent the opinion of American students, in particular the young generation.
In the survey, there were 32 questions, which
were divided into two parts, 20 questions about cell phones and 12 questions
about intercultural marriage. Our survey questions about cell phones were
located first 1-20, and then intercultural marriage questions were followed.
Before I explained about the questions, people a little bit confusing because
two different kinds of questions we were ask the same time. We made questions
yes or no, asking students’ opinions and using patterns. Also we asked not only
their gender, age, and where they were from, but also how often they used it,
what the main purpose of using it was and usage pattern. I took my survey from
my department students; however, other writing classmates took the survey in an
open area (Coffee shop).
In this variety of ways of the survey we got 229
results. After finished the survey, we put our all data in the online site
(Survey Planet) to make an online version data. Using the online version data, we could get categorized
answer. They provided us fundamental pie charts, based on that we could easily
found out our outstanding results. But
they just collected data and was shown the results based on our survey
questions. We needed to convert data to excel, because of more detail analysis.
And the online data also provide us a CSV Excel file; we used the Excel software to
analyze the data and plot.
Based on
these results we will find out TTU student cell phone using patterns.
Results
To investigate our hypotheses, we collected a
total number of 229 surveys from a variety of different department of Texas
Tech students. There were 105 males and 124 females. Over 80% of people’s age
was under 27. And also most students come from Texas and participants were
American. Only36 people were international. Based on our data, our data results
can represent to the Texas young generation’s thoughts.
My
first hypothesis was that younger TTU students (<22) would report using cell
phones in class more often than older students (>22). According to the
article (Alleyne, 2011), young people tend more to be addicted to
their cell phones, so I suspected that. This hypothesis was related to our
survey question 7. There were surprising answers; 11 people use their cell
phone constantly. I followed the data, and I found out that all 11 people had
age between 18 and 22 and they were consisted of 4 females and 7 males. However,
the answer “never” was selected by 49 people. 36 people were over 23 years old
and among them 10 people were over 35 years old. These results can support my
hypothesis; younger people more often use their cell phones in class than older
people
The
second hypothesis was that young people could think that cell phone is not
related to their grades. Based on study about relationship between cell phone
and GPA (Bjornsen, 2015), their results could show us they have a
strong relationship. We made a yes or no question. 58% of participants thought
that cell phones could not hurt their grades. However, TTU students, especially
young students, did not care about usage of cell phones in class. Based on
survey results, 76 out of 122 people (62%) who were under 22 selected “no”
while 57 out of 107 older people (53%) choose the answer “no”. We found that
young people tended to think that cell phone usage and their grade were not
much related to each other.
My
third hypothesis was about cell phones and social relationships. Women tend to
use their cell phones to maintain their relationships. So, I suspected that
women would not agree that cell phones can disturb social interactions. Through
this survey we found out 76.4% of people thought cell phones can affect on
their social relationship. 97 out of 175 people (55%) who thought cell phone
could reduce social interaction were women while 78(44%) people were male. I
expected that female thought that cell phone could not affect their social
interactions because women could easily communicate with cell phones. However,
the results show females thought cell phones could hurt their social
relationships.
My
fourth hypothesis was that young people tended to use more texting than
calling. Author of the Western Washington study explained that there were
significant differences between young and old people’s cell phone usage
patterns (Hyman, 2014). The result that we received from our survey
was that 68 out of 122 (56%) young people (<22) said they prefer texting.
Among the older people (>22) 58 out of 107 (54%) people chose the texting.
These results showed there was not much difference between two groups. Our
survey’s main target consisted of young generation because most of people were
TTU students. For this reason we got similar results between two different age
groups. It means that, even most of the older people (>22) were TTU
students, and not much older than the graduated people, so there really wasn’t
much differences in age.
I had
another hypothesis about cell phones usage in religious activities. Many
religious officials believe that modern equipment could help make effective
worship. But people did not agree with that. TTU students reported that only 53
people out of 229 (23%) used their cell phone with religious purpose. This
result was similar with anther study’s result. It means that TTU students
wanted to focus on their own spiritual aspect rather than technologies.
My
final hypothesis was that young people were more likely to text while they were
driving. In fact, do texting while driving is as dangerous as drunken driving. People
cannot keep their eyes on the road while they are texting. Unfortunately we
don’t have strict law about whether people who text while driving can text
often. The result of our survey 35% TTU student sent text when they were
driving. Among those people 68 out of 80 (85%) were age under the 22. Our
survey also had same results which were young people more likely to do texting
while driving (Copeland, 2010). The matter of they knew texting while
driving is illegal or not, they could not stop texting.
To
sum up, the result shown that gender and age were main factors of cell phone
usage pattern. And also we found that TTU student’s behaviors were not far
differences from trend of modern people.
Discussion
Through this survey we found some particular
cell phone usage patterns in TTU students. We took a survey of 229
participants; among them 54.1% were female and 45.9% were male. In gender they
were not very different. And 55% were single and 53% had age under 22. Our data
could represent Texas Tech young single people’s opinions. Most students (31.7%:
114 out of 229) were from Texas; we had only 36 international students. Total
number of Texas Tech students is approximately 33,000; our data had only 229.
So, our data could not represent all of Texas Tech students’ opinions. Despite
this limitation we found very interesting results.
These days many media warn us of excessive cell
phone usage because it brings us many side effects. One of my hypotheses was
that younger people were more likely to use their cell phone in class than
older people. This is also related to the cell phone addiction. Our survey
results show that 57.6% of people used their cell phone over three hours per
day. The results confirm this. If I make another survey, I would like to add
the ‘self-addiction check lists’. With that survey I want to know how many
young generations are actually addicted to their cell phones. And also young
students thought that cell phone use in class was not related to their grade.
We didn’t measure relationships between grade and cell phone usages, but I
thought this result just reflected their feeling. We only asked them what their
opinion about the cell phone usage and their grades was; we didn’t have any
data about their actual GPA. Generally we couldn’t focus on our lecture while
using cell phones. It should hurt their grade; however, they could be not aware
of that. If we take a more detailed survey and investigation, we might learn
more about the relationship between cell phones and grade, or we might be able
to find signs when people deny the damage it does. It will help students focus
more on their class rather than on using cell phones.
I also hypothesized that cell phone using could
disturb people’s social relationships. I supposed that women would like to
communicate with their cell phones, but women also thought that cell phones
could disturb their social relationships. After finishing the survey I have a
question about this result. Nowadays, most people have their own cell phones
and we can make a call or text whenever we want. I wonder what people mostly do
with their cell phone. At one time, the cell phone’s main purpose was calling
but now most people use multi feature phones, so people can do a lot of things
with their cell phones. It means calling might not be the main purpose for
modern people anymore. Without calling we could know about our friends’ news
from social media. If we asked them about “What’s your main purpose of using
your cell phone?” I suppose that the calling might not be the main purpose. We
will add more detailed questions, and we will get more specific results about
cell phones usage patterns.
According
to our results, TTU students prefer to use texting rather than calling. Texting
is not a direct interaction, because we could not feel their feeling through
the text. I think this usage pattern could destroy our social relationships.
Young people tend to contact their friends in an indirect way (texting); for
this reason, they could not share their emotion perfectly. This usage pattern
could hurt young people’s social relationships.
After
finishing the survey I realized that people still think that religion is more
important in their life than technology. TTU students tended to avoid using
their cell phones at church; we did not ask them why, but the results could
show they wanted to focus on their own spiritual aspect while they were at
church. It means that TTU students thought that religion is regarded as
important in their life.
If I
make another survey, I would like to add advantages of cell phones. I thought
we tended to focus on cell phones’ side effects. Our questions’ approach
assumed that all the cell phone use in class was bad. For example, in question
8, we asked about some bad behavior in class. TTU students can use their cell
phones for educational purpose (i.e. dictionary, notes, recording the lecture, etc.). Not much but some people answered
that they just checked the time; this result could show they could do other
things (not bad behaviors) in class with their cell phone. However, we just
asked about useless behavior which does not help their class. I think this
negative question can give our conclusion a negative image of cell phones. We
cannot deny that cell phones make our lives easier and are convenient. So, I
think we should have included good side of cell phone usage. For making perfect
results, we should consider the advantages of cell phones. After collecting two
sides of usage patterns we can make balanced results about cell phone usage.
Also,
in my opinion, survey target is important factor of our results. That’s because
depend on the people’s attitude can significant affect the results. I took my
survey with my department friends. We knew each other and they are willing to
take survey for me, so, the results are more reliable. However, if I took a
survey with people who don’t know each other, the results can less reliable
than previous case. I am not sure this can be appropriate consideration point,
but I think before taking a survey we need to think about this. The surveyors’
attitudes for the survey can one of the key factors of the results. If they
took a survey not honest or just like a kidding, the all results’ could not be
reliable at all. So, before take a survey, we should consider about who is the
best people.
Finally,
I thought that international’s cell phone usage patterns were not similar to
Americans’. Because English is their second language, they have to focus more
on the lecture than native speakers. And also they need to record the lecture
and they might more often have find vocabulary using their cell phone. If we
get more international students’ data, we also can get interesting results
about differences between American and international students.
Conclusion
In
summary, we investigated Texas Tech students’ attitudes and usage patterns
toward the cell phone usage. Using 229 survey results, we got interesting
results. Compared with our literature’s results, in our survey we had similar
results. One of the main reasons is that we made our hypotheses based on
literature reviews’. But it also could show Texas Tech students are not much
different from others. I cannot say these results can represent the results of all
TTU students. From the research result, Texas Tech students tend to use their
cell phone in class for a variety of purposes. Especially, younger students use
their cell phones more in class than older students. These young students also
thought that using cell phone in class would not impact on their grade. In
addition, TTU students thought excessive cell phones usage could influence
their social relationship; there were some differences between females and males,
female were agree more with that. Moreover, most students preferred texting
calling. Surprisingly, they did texting often when they were driving. This is
very dangerous behavior because when they are texting they couldn’t focus on
driving. If emergency situations happen, they could not prepare anything. These
situations can make a big accident. According to results, young people text
more than older people. Nowadays, texting while driving makes big trouble. Our
results can not cover our all Texas Tech communities’ trend; however, we should
not overlook these results.
Our
survey was relatively small to represent the whole TTU community but we could
get sample results about cell phone usage patterns. However, these survey
results might be used for base data for cell phone usage trends in TTU
students.
Appendix І
Figure 1. The result of how many hours use their cell phone
per day.
Figure 2. The result of cell phone can hurt their grade.
Figure 3. The person who thought cell phone can disturb
their social relationships.
Appendix І І
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