By: Abdullah Hidan
This
study investigates the use of cell phones among students at Texas Tech University
and it looks at whether or not there are gender differences in cell phone use
among these students. 229 students at Texas Tech participated in this study.
These participants were asked to complete a survey that they were able to fill
out either by hand or by going online. In the end, all the results of the
survey were entered online on SurveyPlanet. Moreover, SurveyPlanet was used to
collect the data and Excel was used to analyze the data and to determine any
differences between males and females in terms of their cell phone use. The
data was also used to find any interesting findings that agree with previous
research on cell phone use. The results of the study revealed that there was
only one significant difference between males and females at Texas Tech
University. The study found that women used spent more time using cell phones
which implied that they were more addicted than men. However, the study found
many similarities between men and women especially in how they felt without
cell phones and how it affected their health and relationships.
Introduction
Our world today is growing rapidly.
With this fast growth and development, many new and up to date devices and
programs are created. These creations and technology enter our lives and impact
the way we live. This technology influences the way we live tremendously and in
a very obvious way. This technology affects many aspects of our lives. It even
influences the way we behave, think and interact with each other. One
technology that we see with almost everyone today, including children, is cell
phones. We carry these cell phones with us everywhere at the doctor’s office,
class, family gatherings and at times we find people using them during
religious ceremonies. These devices have become a part of us that we cannot
live without. we even place these cell phones near us when we go to sleep. To
some degree, cell phones have replaced our clocks, watches, calendars, number
books and many more things.
However, our attachment to our cell phones is
due to many reasons. For example, we find comfort, information, and even games
in these cell phones. In addition, cell phones have proven to have a number of
advantages and disadvantages (Tomasovic, 2014). Among the advantages that cell phones have
is that they allow us to get quick access to many things such as our friends
and family, websites, apps, and photos. This quick access saves us a lot of
time especially with the fast pace and busy life style that many people all over
the world have. Cell phones help us save time because we have all of our
numbers, photos, notes and many things in one place and to many people this is
great. To some extent, cell phones have made our lives easier and more
enjoyable. It allows us to enter a world of various types of entertainment such
as games, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp. Cell phones also allow people to
create a stage for them where they can share their talents and ideas with the
world and as a result people became famous quickly and easily. Using cell
phones to expose one’s self in different places and at different times has
increased many people’s attachment to their cell phones everywhere they go. On
the other hand, cell phones have many disadvantages that we realize when we
start using them. They can harm our health or keep us too busy to interact with
the people we love such as our family and friends. They can harm our
relationships or deprive us of experiencing a more relaxed and not so fast life
style. They also give us quick and easy exposure to different people that we do
not know which at times may be a bad and unsafe thing.
Cell phones have received much attention by
many people including researchers. Our attitudes, feelings, and cell phone use
have been examined and their positive and negative effects have been researched
as well. However, there is still so much to find out about cell phones, which
is a very interesting topic to explore.
Literature
Review
We
conducted a study on Texas Tech University students. I wanted to see the gender
differences between males and females and their use of cell phones. I wanted to measure addiction by looking at
the subject’s frequent eagerness to check and use a cell phone while driving,
in class, and during different social interactions. Chiu, Hong & Chiu
(2013) found, in a study they conducted on 448 college students in an island in
Taiwan, that there was a strong correlation between internet addiction and
mobile phone addiction. They also found that females were more addicted to cell
phones than males. I hypothesized that for students at Texas Tech University
that females would be more addicted to their cell phones than males.
Also,
another study by Rainie & Zickuhr (2015)
found that the majority of people surveyed felt that it was okay to use a cell
phone while walking down the street. On the other hand, the majority of people
surveyed felt that that the places that they felt were not appropriate to use a
cell phone were in a church or worship service, followed by quiet places such as
movie theaters. Moreover, another study by Kowalski (2014) also brought up
gender differences and cell phone use. Kowalski mentioned that men tend to use
their cell phones for entertainment and to seek information, whereas women used
cell phone to maintain their relationships, and thus women spent more time
using their cell phone.
Furthermore, Lenhart (2016) stated that
91% of the people who took the survey used in his study said that cell phones made
them feel safe because they knew that they could get help more easily and
faster. She mentioned that it was mostly women out of the 91% who said that
they felt safer. I hypothesized that also women at Texas Tech would indicate
or suggest that having their cell phone with them constantly made them feel
more safe. Moreover, Howe (2015)
stated, “Text messages now outrank phone calls as the dominant form of
communication among Millennials.” Thus, I hypothesized that Millennials,
both male and female, who are between the ages of 18 and 23 would tend to text
more than call while using their cell phones. In addition, Westcott (2014) says that
women tend to check their cell phones on an average of every twenty-six minutes
and fifteen seconds and men tend to check their cell phones on an average of
every twenty-two minutes and thirty seconds. I hypothesized that men at
Texas Tech would tend to check their cell phones more than women. Also, Worland
(2014) mentioned that 75% of the people surveyed in his study admitted that
they texted while driving, although 98% of these people realize how dangerous
texting while driving is. I hypothesized that students at Texas Tech would
report that their main purpose of using a cell phone while driving was to text,
and I also hypothesized that they would admit that texting while driving was
dangerous.
However, it is important to point out
that there are studies that have found that cell phones are not only dangerous
while driving, but they also can harm our health in general. Studies have found
that cell phones can cause brain cancer, harm pregnant woman, and carry many
germs (Childs, 2009). Also, Borreli (2013) mentions that by having the phone
constantly vibrating, ringing, or giving alerts, a person becomes stressed and
unable to relax. I hypothesized that both male and female students at Texas
Tech would report that cell phone use did affect their health.
Furthermore, cell phones also can harm
our relationships (Berenson, 2015). Polandian (2015) mentions that sometimes
cell phones distract us from the people around us, and he used the phrase “phone snubbing”.
Polandian states that when people are too distracted with their phones, this
can hurt their partner in a relationship, and this can ruin their relationship.
Polandian states that phone snubbing can lead to depression of the involved
partner. I also hypothesized that many students would agree that could phone
use can harm one’s relationship with others.
Furthermore, there are many studies
that have looked at gender differences and cell phone etiquette. A study found
that men were twice as likely to text, chat, or check their cell phone and feel
that it was normal behavior in any informal meeting (Nison, 2013). Nison also mentioned
that older people were a lot more sensitive to cell phone use such as texting,
answering or checking the phone in an informal business meeting. Older people
found it to be unacceptable as opposed to the 95% of younger people who found
it to be acceptable. I hypothesized that older people at Texas Tech would be
more aware of and sensitive to their cell phone use as opposed to younger
people.
Method
As a group
of researchers at Texas Tech university, we were divided into two basic groups.
Each group was given the task of designing a survey on cell phone use or
intercultural marriage. The survey consisted of items that attempted to measure
the students’ attitudes toward intercultural marriage and their amount of cell
phone use. After each group finished designing their survey, we combined our
survey questions and came out with a single survey that included both cell
phone use and intercultural marriage. We decided to combine both topics in one
single survey because we believed that by doing so we could increase our
opportunities to obtain as much data as possible.
After
designing our survey, both groups decided and agreed to distribute the survey
to six American males and six American females who studied at Texas Tech
University. Moreover, each researcher in both groups agreed to fill out the
survey as well; and we also agreed that we had the option to distribute the
survey to friends, family members, or international students who attend Texas
Tech University. In addition, we agreed to either have the survey completed
electronically or in paper form. For those researchers who decided to
distribute and obtain the paper form of the survey, they had to enter their
data electronically. All the researchers agreed to use SurveyPlanet to enter their
data. In addition, after collecting the data and entering it into SurveyPlanet,
we got a total of 229 responses, and we planned to use SurveyPlanet graphs and
statistics. Also, while collecting our data for this study, we went to a
variety of places in Lubbock and we distributed the survey to a variety of
people. As far as we know, most of the researchers completed what they were
required to do.
However, as
the researchers entered the data obtained into SurveyPlanet, some issues came
up. One of the problems we encountered was the fact that some of the subjects
who filled out the survey left some items in the survey empty. This occurred
because the respondents were inclined not to answer questions that did not have
‘none’ or ‘NA’ as an option. In addition, SurveyPlanet did not give us as
researchers the option to leave an item blank that was left by a respondent as
blank. Due to this, we were forced to answer or fill out some items on behalf
of the subjects. However, we tried our best to try to guess and figure out by
looking at the other items in the survey what might be the best answer.
Overall, we believe that this problem that we encountered while working with
SurveyPlanet could have somewhat affected our data.
Results
This study focused on both males and
females of all ages at Texas Tech University. Also, the subjects in this study
were 105 males and 124 females. The
subjects in this study were both American and international. The study
attempted to make a comparison between men and women in terms of their cell
phone use and their attitudes towards intercultural marriage. It attempted to
find whether or not there was a positive correlation between gender and cell
phone use; and whether or not there was a positive correlation between gender
and attitudes towards intercultural marriages. In addition, prior to obtaining
the results I made several hypotheses about Texas Tech University students and
their use of cell phones.
In the
first hypothesis, I claimed that females at Texas Tech would tend to be more
addicted to their cell phones than males. By saying addiction, I mean to use a
cell phone for a long period of time. By looking at the data obtained, it can
be seen that this hypothesis was confirmed. 62% of the people who reported that
they used their cell phones for over 4 hours were female. The difference
between males and females can be seen in graph (1)
Also, the second hypothesis I made was that
woman at Texas Tech would indicate that having a cell phone with them
constantly made them feel safe. Interestingly, this was confirmed for Texas
Tech students. The results of the study indicated that almost 48% of the people
who took the survey felt safe when they had their cell phone with them were
female. Interestingly, also looking at the data revealed that more than half
the people who took the survey and felt safe when they had their cell phones
with them were male. In general, we can say that having a cell phone does make
both men and woman feel safe. This can be
seen in graph (2).
Moreover, for the third hypothesis in the
study, I claimed that Millennials, both male and female, who are between the
ages of 18 and 23, would tend to text more than to talk. Interestingly, this
hypothesis has been confirmed. The results in this study revealed that the younger
the subjects, the more they preferred to text rather than to talk, as shown in
graph (3) and (4). The preference to text among Millennials is true for both
male and female subjects.
Moreover, the data has revealed some
interesting findings that support another hypothesis I made, which was that
older people would be more sensitive and aware of their cell phone use. The
data has shown that as the respondents got older their use of cell phones
decreased to less than 30 minutes, which implies that they are not addicted to
cell phones, and it also implies that they are aware of and sensitive to their
use of cell phones. More details can be seen in graph (5).
Furthermore, in my fourth hypothesis, I
claimed that men at Texas Tech would tend to check their cell phones more than
women. The data of this study indicated
that 46% of men do tend to check their cell phones 1-3 times during class and
57% of women tend to check their cell phones during class. In general, my
hypothesis was not confirmed. In general, it was found that both male and
female subjects were pretty much the same in terms of how much they check their
cell phone during class. The graphs (6) and (7) below show more details.
In the fifth hypothesis, I claimed that
students at Texas Tech would report that their main purpose of using cell
phones while driving was to text message. Interestingly, 34% of the subjects in
this study, both male and female, indicated that they mainly use a cell phone
while driving in order to use the GPS. However, only 35% of the subjects
indicated that they use a cell phone to text while driving. Hence, my
hypothesis was not confirmed. Graph (8) gives more details.
Also, in the sixth hypothesis, I claimed that
students at Texas Tech, both male and female, would indicate that using a cell
phone while driving was dangerous. In general, the majority of the participants
agreed that using a cell phone while driving was dangerous. Graph (9) shows
more detail.
Also, I hypothesized that both male and
female students at Texas Tech would report that using cell phones did affect
their health. Interestingly, 67% of the students at Texas Tech University
indicated that using a cell phone did give them or the people they know some
health issues such as excess stress or sleep disorder, whereas 32.4% indicated
that cell phones did not cause them any health problems. Moreover, the data
also revealed that there was not a significant difference between men and women
when it comes to health problems and cell phones. These differences can be seen
in Graphs (10) and (11)
Finally, in this study, I claimed that cell
phones affected people’s relationships. Thus, I hypothesized that both male and
female students at Texas Tech would agree that using cell phones would harm or
have some affect on their relationships. This study has shown that my claim is
true. 76.4% of the students at Texas Tech believed that it had an affect on
social interaction and relationships, whereas 23% indicated that they believed
it did not harm human interaction and relationships.
Discussion
This study
looked at cell phone use and whether or not there is a correlation between
gender and the amount of cell phone usage. Prior to collecting the data, I made
nine hypotheses. While working with the data and finding the results, I was
interested in what the data would reveal about the hypotheses that I made. The
results were interesting and in fact some were consistent with what I
hypothesized earlier in the study and previous studies, whereas some results
turned out to be the opposite or different from what I hypothesized and what is
present in the literature.
In the
beginning of the study, I claimed that women would tend to use cell phones more
than men. Interestingly, the data revealed that there was a significant
difference between men and women. This claim is consistent with previous
research as well (Chiu,
Hong & Chiu, 2013). Also, I found that the fact that the older
people get more aware and sensitive to their cell phone use to be confirmed.
This was an interesting finding, and it is compatible with what was stated in
previous literature.
In
addition, my claims that students at Texas Tech would agree that using cell
phones is dangerous while driving has been confirmed, and matches with what
previous studies have mentioned. Also, Texas Tech students, both male and
female, agreed that cell phones do affect their health and relationships as
mentioned in previous studies (Borreli,
2013; Childs, 2009; Berenson, 2015; Polandian, 2015)
However,
there were some claims that I made that were not confirmed. And the data
revealed very interesting results. I have claimed that the main reason students
at Texas Tech University use cell phones while driving is to text. However, the
results of the survey revealed that the main reason was to get access to their
GPS. This finding is not consistent with previous research (Worland, 2014). This finding
can be due to the fact that the GPS is a tool that is increasing in popularity.
A few years ago, the GPS was not very common to many people and some people
might have had it but they did not know how to use it or do not have the habit
of using the GPS.
Moreover,
another interesting finding that the data revealed is that both men and woman
at Texas Tech reported that having their cell phone made them feel safe. In
previous studies (Lenhart, 2016)
and in my hypothesis I claimed that only women would express the feeling
of being unsafe without it. It was surprising to find out that men felt unsafe
although they are less vulnerable than women.
It would be interesting if further questions could be directed to the
male groups in this study to have them explain why they would feel unsafe.
Another
interesting finding that somewhat puzzled me is the fact that both males and
females were equal in terms of the number of times that they checked their cell
phones in class. I find this to be puzzling, especially when the first finding
states that women use cell phones more than men. I think this might indicate
that people by large are not very aware of how often they check their phones. Also,
this puzzling finding may indicate that maybe some of the people who took the
survey were hiding the truth about their cell phone use.
By looking
at the data in this study, I feel that in general we could say that men and
women are similar in their cell phone usage, addiction and attitudes to some
degree. However, it is important to mention that a number of limitations have
been identified and such limitations have affected the results of the study.
First, the N size for this study, which is 229, was small. Second, the survey
used in this study may have caused some confusion for the participants and some
items and choices on the survey need to be revised. There were some items that
did not give the participants options such as ‘NA’ or ‘none of the previous’.
Moreover, the online version of the survey did not give the participants or the
researcher the choice to leave an item blank. Such complications affected the
results of this study. The final limitation is that more funding for this study
was needed to help obtain stronger results.
In general,
this study implies that both males and females have some kind of addiction to
cell phones. We can clearly see how cell phones have an impact on many
important aspects of our lives, such as our health, relationships, etc.
However, I
truly believe that conducting further research on this topic using a more
precise and adequate survey would be interesting, especially if a study that
looks at whether there is a correlation between cell phone use and students’
nationality at Texas Tech University and maybe compare that to the use of
American students. It would be interesting to see if our culture limits our use
of cell phones to some degree.
Conclusion
This
study has looked at the cell phone use of students at Texas Tech University. It
has also looked at the differences between the use of cell phones among males
and females and their attitudes towards cell phones. It is also important to
mention that the participants in this study were both American and
international. A survey was conducted and distributed to students of different
ages, degrees and backgrounds. This survey was designed to help find answers to
a number of hypotheses that the researcher proposed in the beginning of the
study. The results of this study has
revealed a number of interesting data about students at Texas Tech. Some of
these results found in this study agree and were compatible with previous
research conducted on cell phone use, whereas some results were not.
This
study has found that males and females at Texas Tech university were similar in
a number of ways when it comes to their cell phone use and their attitudes
towards it. First, the study has revealed that the number of times that males
and females checked their cell phones in class were very similar. This study
has also shown that men and woman were similar in expressing that cell phones
affect one’s health. Another similarity found between men and woman was in
their attitudes towards using a cell phone while driving. Both males and females
have equally agreed that using a cell phone and driving was dangerous. A final
interesting similarity found was that there was no difference between males and
females who expressed that having their cell phones made them feel safe. The
only significant difference between males and females found in this study was
the fact that females were more addicted to their cell phones.
Moreover,
the students at Texas Tech have expressed that the main purpose behind using
cell phones while driving was to use the GPS, despite the fact that a large
number agree that texting while driving is dangerous. In addition, the older
people are at Texas Tech University, the more sensitive they seem to be when
using their cell phones.
In
conclusion, this study has shown us how cell phones do indeed affect many
aspects of the life of students at Texas Tech. Every single student at Texas
Tech, regardless of their gender, education or background has indicated that
they have a cell phone and use that cell phone in a manner that may have a
positive or negative impact on their life. We can see that even older people
who are aware of using a cell phone do use cell phones even if for a short
amount of time. This indicates that no matter how much we try to be alert of
our cell phone use, the circumstances around us and the way of living in
today’s world pushes and requires us to use it to either communicate with
others, find our way when we get lost, or to get some work done. Cell phones
have become an integral part of our lives, and further studies on cell phone
use can be a way to help people increase their awareness and perhaps their cell
phone use will decrease in a manner that will affect people’s lives more
positively. Also, currently, there have been some helpful cultural reactions to
cell phone use such as creating a popular movement to reject or decrease cell
phone use or having specialists appear on television to help people beat their
cell phone addiction.
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