Are You Talking to Me? How Cell Phones Lead to Selfishness

You’re walking through a grocery store. You hear someone behind you ask a question that you can’t quite make out. You turn, banging your knee into the grocery cart, you look quizzically; “Excuse me?” you ask. The man with the Bluetooth piece in his ear gives you a dirty look as he reaches past you to grab a bottle of chardonnay. Don’t worry, though. He’ll get his when the bagger isn’t there to put his wine in one of those slim paper bags because he is texting in the bathroom.

Cell phones make us selfishCell phones have become such a dominant part of our lives that we hardly question them anymore. We take for granted that we can play games, watch videos, listen to music, find a restaurant, look at pictures, plot a path on Mapquest, and check the weather with a device smaller than a deck of cards. Oh, and it makes phone calls, too.

A recent study by Omotayo Banjo, Yifeng Hu and S. Shyam Sunda examines the role that cell phones play in our lives. The argument is simple and profound: cell phones inhibit our social interactions with those we encounter. They are a buffer. With so many tools and forms of entertainment at hand, who has time to interact with the people around them anymore?

Banjo, Hu, and Sunda argue that, “Overall, a plethora of research findings suggest that cell phone usage in social spaces generates negative attitudes as it constitutes a disturbance to proximate others.” Not only are cell phones disturbing to others, they isolate us. In this same study, the researchers argue that “The ‘presumption of privacy’ variable suggests that people use the cell phone to both signal to proximate others they want to be left alone while at the same time communicating that they are not alone.” It is an intriguing and saddening notion.

Many people do use their phones as shields. Others unconsciously separate themselves from those around them. To the cell phone generation, the idea of chatting with someone they don’t know seems almost ridiculous. Why do that when you could be listening to music? Or texting? Or playing Angry Birds? It seems like a silly thing to be concerned about, but the social ramifications are unsettling to say the least. We are becoming an antisocial tribe, marked by the white wires hanging from our ear buds.

Marketing professors Anastasiya Pocheptsova and Rosellina Ferraro from the University of Maryland conducted a study which produced similar results. They found after a short period of cellphone use, people were less inclined to volunteer for a community activity when asked, compared to the control-group. Cell phone users were also less persistent in solving word problems – even though they knew their answers would translate to a monetary donation to charity.

Authors of the study said, “The cell phone directly evokes feelings of connectivity to others, thereby fulfilling the basic human need to belong.” If our human connections are limited to those people we know… people we can contact by phone, then our social network will not expand except in situations where we are forced to interact: work, school, etc.

The more we let cell phones dominate our lives, the less apt we are to initiate casual social interactions. And the less likely we are to chat with the person next to us in line at the movies, the worse we will become at casual interactions in general. Cell phones are miraculous things, but, as with any convenience, there is a price. Those interesting, quirky conversations you used to have on airplanes are a thing of the past. We are quickly shuffling, eyes glued to a tiny screen, toward a society where we scuttle about avoiding awkward moments, hiding behind the relative ‘safety’ of our cell phone walls, er, towers. Let’s put our phones down and begin to really connect.

1 thought on “Are You Talking to Me? How Cell Phones Lead to Selfishness”

  1. “Many people do use their phones as shields.” I think this is on point. Who hasn’t pretended to be texting in an effort to avoid an awkward situation? Whenever I’m meeting a friend for coffee or at the movies and I get there first, I pretend to text (or go on Facebook) b/c it makes me feel less awkward than if I were to just stand there looking around. And I know a lot of other people who have admitted to doing the same. Also, I think the findings of the University of Maryland study, that cell-phone users were less inclined to volunteer, is really sad b/c today, all kids grow up with cell phones, so they might not even remember a time when people had to talk on the phone rather than text, or call someone’s home phone and politely their parents to speak with them. It’s sad to think that kids might one day think of talking on the phone with someone as obsolete. Yes, texting is great and convenient, but it doesn’t provide as much human interaction.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.