Cell Phone Experiment PSY418

CELL

PHONES

Introduction

Srivastava stated that technology cannot exist in a vacuum, and the true effects of the mobile phone have yet to truly be tapped into (2005).

Research has confirmed that fully multi-tasking in general can diminish performance in one or both tasks, as demonstrated by Misra, Cheng, Genevie, & Yuan (2014) in their study of quality of interaction in the presence and absence of technology.

In the context of a social setting, the presence of a mobile phone may orient individuals to think of other people and events outside their immediate social context. In doing so, they divert attention away from a presently occurring interpersonal experience to focus on a multitude of other concerns and interests (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2012).

A turning point in the history of telecommunications came in 2002 when the number of mobile subscribers overtook the number of fixed-line subscribers on a global scale, which propelled mobile phones as the dominant technology for voice communications (Srivastava, 2005)

Research Question

The results: tasks that took more effort, such as holding a conversation, were hindered due to the presence of mobile technology.

It was concluded that the two strangers interacting felt less close to each other when there was a cell phone present than the strangers who did not have a cell phone present (2012).

According to Cisco visual networking index, 563 million mobile connections were introduced in 2015 alone (Cisco, 2016).

When paired with strangers, would undergraduate students talk more with or without the presence of cell phones?

Procedure

Participants

Materials

20 participants, 50% male

Ages: 18-21 (M=19.45, SD=.99)

Volunteers from the University of Texas

65% white, 20% Asian American,

15% other

PCL room (table and chairs)

Voice recorder

Survey of self-assigned personality

Consent/debriefing forms

• Between-subjects
• Participants arrived in pairs
• Gave consent forms
• If they were randomly chosen to not have phones, we had them put their phones on the whiteboard
• Researchers left the room
• 7 minutes timed
• Revealed truth of study
• Consent form for use of recording
• Debriefing form
• Thanked them for their time

Similar Studies

Limitations

Importance of Continuing Research

Discussion

Works Cited

• Two friends of the same sex are asked to wait in a room for 5 minutes

• 76% of them used their cellphone at some point (Brown, Manago, Trimble, 2016)

• Cellphones inhibit the development of closeness in friendships

• Stand in the way of meaningful conversations (Przybylski, Weinstein, 2012)

• Communication preferences

• low self-esteem --> via email and people
• high self-esteem --> face-to-face (Joinon 2004)

Brown G., Manago A., Trimble J. (2016). Tempted to Text: College Students’ Mobile Phone Use During a Face-to-Face Interaction With a Close Friend. Emerging Adulthood. 1-4 doi: 10.1177/2167696816630086

Joinson, A.N. (2004) Self-Esteem, Interpersonal Risk, and Preference for E-Mail to Face-To-Face Communication. CyberPsychology & Behavior. 7(4), 472-478. doi:10.1089/cpb.2004.7.472

Przybylski, A. K., Weinstein, N. (2012). Can you connect with me now? How the presence of mobile communication technology influences face-to-face conversation quality. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 30 (3) 237-246.

• Sample size too low

• 1 fully introverted group

• Research Design

• Observational study

• Objects in room that distracted from the experiment

• Homework
• Hand-sanitizer

•Tardiness of participants

• Recognize the negative consequences of cellphone presence and fix them

• Create better and longer-lasting relationships
• Pay more attention to surroundings
• Better understanding of social norms
• Social norms that positively influence relationships

• Results may differ once taking the limitations into account

• Presence of cellphones affected conversation length between two strangers when put in a room together

• Non-significant

• Personality type (introverted or extroverted) affected conversation length

• Non-significant

Brown et. al conducted an experiment measuring the time spent on a mobile phone between two same-sex, close friends over a 5-minute period of time. It was concluded from their study that the more time the dyads spent on their phones, the lower their interaction quality was rated, and the more likely they were to report that the encounter was unenjoyable and strained (2016).

-In an experiment conducted by Campbell & Kwak (2011), it was found that the presence of mobile devices did not hinder people from talking on mobile devices, no matter what sort of medium was being used.

-What ended up being important and significant in this study was what was actually being done on the form of technology.