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Smart phones and not so smart escapism?

Francisco Miraval

I frequently say that I don’t like the idea of having a phone that is smarter than me. When I say that, some people kindly smile, but, according to a recent study, that situation is now not only real, but it is affecting the lives and academic performance of college students who use their phones to escape from reality and from thinking.

According the study done by researchers at Baylor University (Waco, Texas), college students spend many hours every day using their smart phones, more hours in fact of the number of hours they spend working or (supposedly) studying.

The research, published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, reveals that, on the average, male college students spend eight hours a day using their phones, while their female counterparts spend as much as ten hours with their phones.

According to Dr. James Roberts, professor of Marketing at Baylor, “that’s outstanding” and the situation could be understood as a “growing addiction” to smart phones. And one of the consequences of that addition is the potential negative impact of that behavior on the academic performance of the students.

In other words, it seems that the smarter the phones become, the less smart their users become.

It is open to debate (and the debate is ongoing) if there is a need to go to college at a time when you can easily find an app for your smart phone to find the answers or the information you need, thus saving you from months and years of attending classes. But the point is that college students addicted to phones are not using those devices to search for information, but to avoid it.

According to Dr. Roberts, smart phones have become an “escape mechanism” from reality and a way to “cheat” both inside and outside the classrooms, including cheating on relationships with family members and employers.

The research, based on interviews with 164 college students, revealed that many of those students are “agitated” if their phone is not in their sight and that students realize that day after day they spend more and more time in the phone, thus neglecting their relationships with others and even their own wellbeing.

Dr. Roberts points out the paradox resulting of using a smart phone because the device brings “freedom” to your life only to become slaves of the phone. And, as part of that process and because of it, students stop thinking, stop learning, and stop talking with real people.

In my personal experience, college students are not the only ones becoming addicted to smart phones and being trapped by them. I have attended many community and business meetings where adults of all ages, educational levels, and social status have shown the same level of addition to their own phones.

According to Dr. Roberts, 60 percent of college students admit they are addicted to their phones, while for many others is addition remains “invisible.” I wonder how many addictions (invisible or not) we may have in our own lives.

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