Dependence on Cell Phones - Essay Example

?Dependence on Cell phones: Study Conducted in the of Sheffield Cell phones have become a part and parcel of the 21st century; no individual can be seen without one. People say they cannot live without their phones, because with the advent of better technology, the smart phone has been introduced in the market; a small palm device that takes care of all the functions that a person would require in his daily life. The smart phone has internet services along with the normal communication functions which appeal to the everyday student more than anyone else; this is because students are in constant need of information for their studies, research, homework, papers as well as travelling and living away from home. An observation was conducted on the use of cell phones by students of the University of Sheffield in order to comprehend their cell phone usage, types of phones used, websites visited, as well as the purpose of use of the cell phone. This study was extremely tough to conduct and understand in order to come up with the final conclusions, mainly because there are innumerable students making use of their cell phones almost at all points during the day. The study conducted was restricted to the library of the University of Sheffield; the University caters to a diverse range of students studying in various fields and thus they make frequent visits to the library in order to access information from books, computers as well as to find some peace and quiet in order to complete their work and do their own research. During the course of a normal weekday, almost 800 students (approximately) were seen moving to and from the library in order to get their work done, both in groups as well as alone. All students had cell phones of their own; however it was pertinent to note that since the cell phones should be on silent mode within the library, there were almost a 100 students in total during the day that did not resort to using their phones at all. On the other hand, the other 700 had their cell phones ready within the palms of their hands to use. It was noted that they used their phones to make use of calling and texting services in order to gather their groups together to do their work in the library. Other students used their phones in order to search for books and papers on the internet before looking for them in the library; there were quite a handful of students that used their phones to take out names of books and magazines that they then searched for in the library for the purpose of their work. This made it easier for them to locate the kind of information that they exactly required as opposed to spending time searching for books and other written material manually. Once they had all the material they needed in their hands, many students, hand writing their work, made use of their cell phones at frequent intervals, almost every fifteen minutes, in order to search something or the other on the internet. When asked why they would not make use of computers or laptops, they replied stating it was easier on their phones as handheld devices were much more user friendly and portable. After asking a certain majority of the students about their cell phone usage, around 35% replied stating it was for personal use, to keep in touch with their friends and relatives via text messaging while working, 20% replied saying they needed it for completing their assignments and the rest needed it either for both. The main focus of the students within the library was to complete their work however there was a significant number that was constantly distracted by their cell phones, making it difficult for them to work and only be hooked on to social networking websites. When asked what kind of websites the students frequented, almost 40% replied stating search engines like Google and Bing to direct them towards other websites to complete their assignments and learn about books and papers that they could find inside the library; 20% said that they were reading news articles and keeping up with news updates through their phones; another 8% said that they used their phones very occasionally in order to either use the dictionary or websites like Wikipedia to understand the gist of the matter they were studying and the rest 30% or so remarked stating that they used their phones to access social networking websites like Google+ and Facebook just to pass time. Most students had smart phones with them, that is, phones with internet services; there was a small number of around 18-20% of the students that had normal phones without internet services, only for the purpose of text messaging and putting through calls. E-mails are a large part of every student’s life, and in Sheffield University as well, it was witnessed that most students, needed their cell phones in order to keep in touch with their overwhelming number of e-mails. They build their networking with each other and also need to keep in touch with whatever is happening within the college and the best method of doing that is e-mailing; push mails in smart phones help students keep up with mails constantly and much faster as compared to logging onto a computer every now and then to check the mail. In conclusion, the study was conducted over a period of three days in the library of the University of Sheffield and each of the days a similar statistical approach was observed as mentioned above, with respect to the types of phones used, websites frequented, and various purposes of using the cell phone were observed and recorded. It was thereby noted that most students, almost 90% could not be seen without their cell phones and constantly required them, at frequent intervals. It was however commendable to note that despite this positive addiction, they maintained a sense of decorum as they still kept in tandem with the library rules and did not raise their voices while speaking on the phone or harmonize the library with their ringtones! References Read More