The Experiment

Texting and Hanging Out by Johnathaneric via Flickr

This isn’t your typical blog where I go on and on about me.  This blog is written by you, the reader.  I am going to encourage you to participate in an experiment, and then document your experiences in a daily diary, i.e. the comments box at the end of the corresponding day’s post.

The Thesis

The smartphone has become as attached as an appendage to most people, from tweens (and occasionally younger) to adults. While society is still writing the etiquette guide to their acceptable use, people are becoming consumed by a virtual world which is changing the parameters of our relationships, our habits and our ability to enjoy and experience the real world we are living in.

The Proposal

Join me in a simple experiment and document your experiences. Compare how your lifestyle changes, or doesn’t–whether your grades improve, your productivity increases, your presence in your everyday life alters your perceptions of happiness, contentment or satisfaction.

The Details

During class and homework time, turn off your phone, iPod, tablet or other texting device–hand it over to someone for safe keeping if you must.  For one school week, a total of five days, go phoneless while you study.  Once each day, stop by here and document your experience.  There will be a post for each day of the experiment with questions or prompts; leave your comment at the end of each post. Whether you choose to specifically answer the prompts or simply summarize your experience is up to you.

The Point

I’ve initiated this experiment as a communications project for Oral/Interpersonal Communications class, but this is more than an assignment.  I’ve observed the growing engagement with electronic devices, especially among young people but not just restricted to this age group.  I wonder how constant access to a virtual reality impacts our mental presence in our everyday lives.  Are we able to communicate better or worse?  Are our relationships deeper or more shallow?  Do we recall more or less about our activities?  Are we more or less productive?  Overall, does constant electronic device usage create more or less internal feelings of happiness and satisfaction?  Most of all, are we aware of the impact of these devices on ourselves and our relationships?  This experiment is designed to increase that awareness, with a primary focus on mobile technology and education, and help users to create their own personal guidelines with a fuller understanding of how device usage can help them reach or fail to reach their personal goals in their work, education, and relationships.

Fine Print

By leaving a comment on this blog, you are granting permission to be quoted in the final project assignment, due May 2013. If you would like a copy of the project, feel free to use the contact form to make a request.

The Journal

You can add comments by clicking the corresponding day below, or from the home page.

• Pre-Experiment Observations
• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Three
• Day Four
• Day Five
• Post-Experiment Conclusions

Trends in Mobile Technology Use by Young People

The generation researched and documented in the 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, are the college students of today or soon will be.  Researchers surveyed the presence and habits of media usage among our young people.  As habits are trending towards ever-greater device use and internet access, it follows that the following statistics are even higher for today’s college student.  The survey primarily documents media use trends, though it also surveys participants for average grades earned, physical activity levels and personal contentedness.  Relevant statistics regarding mobile device use for our purposes include:

Over the past two years, laptop, cell phone, and iPod ownership has exploded. The proportion of 8- to 18-year-olds owning a laptop has climbed from 12% to 29%; cell phone ownership has jumped from 39% to 66%, and those with an iPod or other MP3 player has gone from 18% to 76%. …

On average, 7th–12th graders report spending about an hour and a half (1:35) engaged in sending and receiving texts. …

Previous studies have shown that young people tend to be engaged in multiple computer activities at the same time—e.g., IMing while sur␣ng the Internet and downloading music. Indeed, the computer is the epicenter of media multitasking. In the current study, we ask how often 7th–12th graders use a totally different medium while they’re also using the computer—for example, watching TV, reading, or text messaging. Four in ten (40%) say they use another medium or text message “most of the time” while they are using the computer; another 26% say they do so “some of the time.” …

The advent and growth of texting over the past five years appears to have contributed to an increase in the proportion of young people who say they use another medium “most” of the time that they are listening to music, using the computer, or watching TV. Similarly, almost half of kids (47%) report texting someone “often” or “sometimes” about what they are watching on TV—an activity that was almost unheard of ␣ve years ago.

The Disruption Factor

The accidental phone ring poses more of significant distraction than one might suppose. Researchers documented the effect of interruption caused by a cell phone ringing in Costly Cell Phones: The Impact of Cell Phone Rings on Academic Performance, published in the Teaching of Psychology journal.  Participants were divided into two groups to view and take notes on a video presentation.  One group was interrupted twice by a ringing cell phone.  Examining the notes and test results, researchers found that participants’ notes were far less likely to contain the information provided during the period of the ringing cell phone, and missed the test questions covering that material at a significantly higher rate than the controls.  The data is charted below:

Table 1. Comparison of the Academic Performance of Participants in the Control and Ringing Conditions

Academic Task	Disrupted Item	Condition
		Control	Ringing
Correctly answered
Test Item 1		94.9%	68.8%**
Test Item 2		79.5%	50.0%**
Presence in notes
Test Item 1		79.5%	53.1%*
Test Item 2		82.1%	43.8%***
Note. Table indicates the percentage of participants in each condition. ∗p < .05. ∗∗p < .01. ***p = .001.

Researchers did note that their experiment did not allow participants to request material to be repeated, as they might in a real classroom with a live instructor. According to the article, lower volumes and vibration mode still serves to distract the class. Their recommendations:

Policies requiring students to reduce the volume of the tone or change the ring to vibration mode might be ineffective, as the mere audibleness of noise, not necessarily intensity, impairs performance (Banbury et al., 2001; Hughes & Jones, 2001). Wei and Leung’s (1999) participants perceived that self- regulation of one’s personal cell phone use would be an effective means of curbing inappropriate cell phone use. If professors disseminate the results of this and future studies to students (e.g., syllabus content), it might provide an incentive, specifically a simple means of preventing impaired academic performance, for the students to regulate their use.

What to do?

While an older article, Cell Phones: Nuisance or Necessity identifies some educational uses for mobile devices and provides some tips which might be helpful in the classroom.

…consider implementing the following in your classroom.

• If found with a cell phone turned on during a test, students receive an automatic two grade deduction from the test scores. Be prepared to give everyone the chance to turn their phones off prior to the test.

• If found using cell phone during class, automatic deduction from their participation score. Make the deduction appropriately severe to be a deterrent.

• Have students label their cell phones and place them in a basket at the beginning of class. Return them to students at the end of class.

This article, as well as others in the sources list, also documents that the proliferation of cell phones in schools are largely promoted by parents who view them as a safety precaution and value the access to communicate with their children throughout the day.