Yakkity, yakkity, yak. All around, you hear ring
tones of cell phones, and you see people who are talking on the phone in public
or sending text messages. This use of cell phones may signal more than normal
communication with friends and family. For some teenagers, this craze may be a
sign of unhappiness and anxiety.
Cell phones are definitely part of today’s youth
culture. Sixty percent of U.S. teens have cell phones, and soon over 50 percent
of kids ages 8 to 12 will have them, too. Students in grades 7 through 12 spend
an average of an hour a day talking on their cell phones. That’s about the same
amount of time that they devote to homework.
The majority of cell phone usage is for text
message, and heavy users check for replies frequently. The heaviest users check
their phones approximately every 10 minutes. They often become irritated when
other people don’t respond to their messages quickly. Heavy reliance on a cell
phone can become a problem-and an obsession.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a survey of 575 high school
students in the United States showed that two-thirds of the students who use
their cell phones more than 90 times a day do so because they are unhappy or
bored. They score higher on tests that measure depression and anxiety compared
to students who use their phones less. However, when they were examined, the
frequent users were not found to be clinically depressed-that is, they were not
actually in a state of depression that was severe enough to require medical
help. The researcher who conducted the study said, “The young people may be
unhappy because of a problem in their lives or anxious about their social
status. They are trying to make themselves feel better by reaching out to
others. Communicating via cell phone makes the ‘addicts’ fell popular.”
For teenagers, cell phones are not just objects
for communication. They are extensions of themselves. They are tools for
keeping in touch. Many teenagers don’t agree with the study from the United
States, and they say that people who are anxious or depressed wouldn’t be
sending out messages or making calls. For them, a lot of cell phone use shows
that a person is popular and has a lot of friends. What do you think?
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