There was a recent study in which it was noted how an addiction to cell phones is comparable to a drug problem, extreme spending tendencies, or multiple other types of addiction. It goes into depth about average use of a college student, why they have such tendencies, etc.
The biggest issue I had with this study was the way in which they collected data. They used a self-report surveys of business students at two different universities. Some questions immediately come to mind such as:
1. How do they know the students were being truthful? What was their margin of error and how were they able to determine it?
2. What region(s) were the universities in? Could there possibly be cultural differences throughout other parts of the U.S. where students use their phones more or less often?
3. Why just business students? Is there a difference in the amount they use their phones than other students at the same universities?
4. What is considered "overuse"? How did the researchers come up with that definition?
5. It was noted that this study was the first of it's kind? How do we know the results are accurate when we have no other studies to compare it to?
Clearly, this topic needs a little bit more attention before this study can be declared concrete. Not saying that these results could not be correct or, on the other hand, that they're the end-all be-all of cell phone use knowledge, we just need more data from bigger samples.
Research Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121128122045.htm
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