negative impact of mobile phones essay

Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

How Smartphones Are Killing Conversation

What happens when we become too dependent on our mobile phones? According to MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle, author of the new book Reclaiming Conversation , we lose our ability to have deeper, more spontaneous conversations with others, changing the nature of our social interactions in alarming ways.

Turkle has spent the last 20 years studying the impacts of technology on how we behave alone and in groups. Though initially excited by technology’s potential to transform society for the better, she has become increasingly worried about how new technologies, cell phones in particular, are eroding the social fabric of our communities.

In her previous book, the bestselling Alone Together , she articulated her fears that technology was making us feel more and more isolated, even as it promised to make us more connected. Since that book came out in 2012, technology has become even more ubiquitous and entwined with our modern existence. Reclaiming Conversation is Turkle’s call to take a closer look at the social effects of cell phones and to re-sanctify the role of conversation in our everyday lives in order to preserve our capacity for empathy , introspection, creativity, and intimacy.

I interviewed Turkle by phone to talk about her book and some of the questions it raises. Here is an edited version of our conversation.

Jill Suttie: Your new book warns that cell phones and other portable communication technology are killing the art of conversation. Why did you want to focus on conversation, specifically?

Sherry Turkle: Because conversation is the most human and humanizing thing that we do. It’s where empathy is born, where intimacy is born—because of eye contact, because we can hear the tones of another person’s voice, sense their body movements, sense their presence. It’s where we learn about other people. But, without meaning to, without having made a plan, we’ve actually moved away from conversation in a way that my research was showing is hurting us.

JS: How are cell phones and other technologies hurting us?

ST: Eighty-nine percent of Americans say that during their last social interaction, they took out a phone, and 82 percent said that it deteriorated the conversation they were in. Basically, we’re doing something that we know is hurting our interactions.

I’ll point to a study. If you put a cell phone into a social interaction, it does two things: First, it decreases the quality of what you talk about, because you talk about things where you wouldn’t mind being interrupted, which makes sense, and, secondly, it decreases the empathic connection that people feel toward each other.

So, even something as simple as going to lunch and putting a cell phone on the table decreases the emotional importance of what people are willing to talk about, and it decreases the connection that the two people feel toward one another. If you multiply that by all of the times you have a cell phone on the table when you have coffee with someone or are at breakfast with your child or are talking with your partner about how you’re feeling, we’re doing this to each other 10, 20, 30 times a day.

JS: So, why are humans so vulnerable to the allure of the cell phone, if it’s actually hurting our interactions?

ST: Cell phones make us promises that are like gifts from a benevolent genie—that we will never have to be alone, that we will never be bored, that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be, and that we can multitask, which is perhaps the most seductive of all. That ability to put your attention wherever you want it to be has become the thing people want most in their social interactions—that feeling that you don’t have to commit yourself 100 percent and you can avoid the terror that there will be a moment in an interaction when you’ll be bored.

Actually allowing yourself a moment of boredom is crucial to human interaction and it’s crucial to your brain as well. When you’re bored, your brain isn’t bored at all—it’s replenishing itself, and it needs that down time.

We’re very susceptible to cell phones, and we even get a neurochemical high from the constant stimulation that our phones give us.

I’ve spent the last 20 years studying how compelling technology is, but you know what? We can still change. We can use our phones in ways that are better for our kids, our families, our work, and ourselves. It’s the wrong analogy to say we’re addicted to our technology. It’s not heroin.

JS: One thing that struck me in your book was that many people who you interviewed talked about the benefits of handling conflict or difficult emotional issues online. They said they could be more careful with their responses and help decrease interpersonal tensions. That seems like a good thing. What’s the problem with that idea?

ST: It was a big surprise when I did the research for my book to learn how many people want to dial down fighting or dealing with difficult emotional issues with a partner or with their children by doing it online.

But let’s take the child example. If you do that with your child, if you only deal with them in this controlled way, you are basically playing into your child’s worst fear—that their truth, their rage, their unedited feelings, are something that you can’t handle. And that’s exactly what a parent shouldn’t be saying to a child. Your child doesn’t need to hear that you can’t take and accept and honor the intensity of their feelings.

People need to share their emotions—I feel very strongly about this. I understand why people avoid conflict, but people who use this method end up with children who think that the things they feel aren’t OK. There’s a variant of this, which is interesting, where parents give their children robots to talk to or want their children to talk to Siri, because somehow that will be a safer place to get out their feelings. Again, that’s exactly what your child doesn’t need.

JS: Some studies seem to show that increased social media use actually increases social interaction offline. I wonder how this squares with your thesis?

ST: How I interpret that data is that if you’re a social person, a socially active person, your use of social media becomes part of your social profile. And I think that’s great. My book is not anti-technology; it’s pro-conversation. So, if you find that your use of social media increases your number of face-to-face conversations, then I’m 100 percent for it.

Another person who might be helped by social media is someone who uses it for taking baby steps toward meeting people for face-to-face conversations. If you’re that kind of person, I’m totally supportive. 

I’m more concerned about people for whom social media becomes a kind of substitute, who literally post something on Facebook and just sit there and watch whether they get 100 likes on their picture, whose self-worth and focus becomes dictated by how they are accepted, wanted, and desired by social media.

And I’m concerned about the many other situations in which you and I are talking at a dinner party with six other people, and everyone is texting at the meal and applying the “three-person rule”—that three people have to have their heads up before anyone feels it’s safe to put their head down to text. In this situation, where everyone is both paying attention and not paying attention, you end up with nobody talking about what’s really on their minds in any serious, significant way, and we end up with trivial conversations, not feeling connected to one another.

JS: You also write about how conversation affects the workplace environment. Aren’t conversations just distractions to getting work done? Why support conversation at work?

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ST: In the workplace, you need to create sacred spaces for conversation because, number one, conversation actually increases the bottom line. All the studies show that when people are allowed to talk to each other, they do better—they’re more collaborative, they’re more creative, they get more done.

It’s very important for companies to make space for conversation in the workplace. But if a manager doesn’t model to employees that it’s OK to be off of their email in order to have conversation, nothing is going to get accomplished. I went to one workplace that had cappuccino machines every 10 feet and tables the right size for conversation, where everything was built for conversation. But people were feeling that the most important way to show devotion to the company was answering their email immediately. You can’t have conversation if you have to be constantly on your email. Some of the people I interviewed were terrified to be away from their phones. That translates into bringing your cell phone to breakfast and not having breakfast with your kids.

JS: If technology is so ubiquitous yet problematic, what recommendations do you make for keeping it at a manageable level without getting so hooked?

ST: The path ahead is not a path where we do without technology, but of living in greater harmony with it. Among the first steps I see is to create sacred spaces—the kitchen, the dining room, the car—that are device-free and set aside for conversation. When you have lunch with a friend or colleague or family member, don’t put a phone on the table between you. Make meals a time when you are there to listen and be heard.

When we move in and out of conversations with our friends in the room and all the people we can reach on our phones, we miss out on the kinds of conversations where empathy is born and intimacy thrives. I met a wise college junior who spoke about the “seven-minute rule”: It takes seven minutes to know if a conversation is going to be interesting. And she admitted that she rarely was willing to put in her seven minutes. At the first “lull,” she went to her phone. But it’s when we stumble, hesitate, and have those “lulls” that we reveal ourselves most to each other.

So allow for those human moments, accept that life is not a steady “feed,” and learn to savor the pace of conversation—for empathy, for community, for creativity.

About the Author

Jill Suttie

Jill Suttie, Psy.D. , is Greater Good ’s former book review editor and now serves as a staff writer and contributing editor for the magazine. She received her doctorate of psychology from the University of San Francisco in 1998 and was a psychologist in private practice before coming to Greater Good .

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Essay on Effects Of Mobile Phones On Students

Students are often asked to write an essay on Effects Of Mobile Phones On Students in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Effects Of Mobile Phones On Students

Introduction.

Mobile phones, once a luxury, have now become a necessity for everyone, including students. While they offer several benefits, they also pose significant challenges. Let’s explore their effects on students.

Learning Tool

Mobile phones can be great learning tools. They provide access to a vast amount of information on the internet. Students can use educational apps, watch educational videos, and even take online courses. This makes learning more interactive and fun.

Communication

Mobile phones make communication easier. Students can connect with their teachers, classmates, and parents anytime, anywhere. This helps in sharing information, discussing projects, and seeking help when needed.

Distraction

On the flip side, mobile phones can be a major source of distraction. Students might spend excessive time on social media, games, and entertainment apps, leading to reduced study time and lower academic performance.

Health Issues

Excessive use of mobile phones can lead to health issues. Staring at the screen for long hours can cause eye strain. Also, it can lead to poor posture and sleep disorders, impacting a student’s overall health.

In conclusion, mobile phones have both positive and negative impacts on students. They can enhance learning and communication but can also lead to distraction and health issues. It’s important for students to use them wisely.

250 Words Essay on Effects Of Mobile Phones On Students

Mobile phones are a big part of our lives today. Most students use them for different things like playing games, chatting with friends, or studying. They can be helpful but also have some bad effects on students.

Positive Effects

Mobile phones can be really useful for students. They can use them to find information on the internet, use educational apps, and even take notes in class. This makes learning easier and more fun. Also, students can stay in touch with their friends and family, which is good for their social life.

Negative Effects

Even though mobile phones can be helpful, they can also cause problems. Students can get addicted to games or social media, which can make them spend less time on their studies. This can lead to poor grades. Also, spending too much time on the phone can lead to health problems like eye strain or poor sleep.

In conclusion, mobile phones have both good and bad effects on students. They can help with learning and staying connected, but can also lead to addiction and health problems. It’s important for students to use their phones wisely. They should try to balance their time between using their phone and doing other important things like studying and spending time with family.

500 Words Essay on Effects Of Mobile Phones On Students

Mobile phones have become an important part of our lives. They are used by people of all ages, including students. Mobile phones have both positive and negative effects on students. This essay will discuss these effects.

One positive effect of mobile phones on students is that they can be used as learning tools. There are many educational apps and websites that students can access on their phones. These can help them understand difficult subjects, practice skills, and learn new things. For example, language learning apps can help students practice a new language. Also, there are apps for math, science, history, and many other subjects. These resources make learning more interesting and fun for students.

Mobile phones also make it easy for students to communicate with their friends, family, and teachers. They can send messages, make calls, and even have video chats. This can be very helpful, especially when students need help with their homework or projects. They can easily reach out to their classmates or teachers for assistance.

Organization

Mobile phones can also help students stay organized. They can use their phones to set reminders for assignments, tests, and other important dates. They can also use them to take notes and keep track of their tasks. This can help students manage their time better and stay on top of their schoolwork.

On the other hand, mobile phones can also have negative effects on students. One of these is distraction. Many students spend a lot of time on their phones, playing games, chatting with friends, or browsing social media. This can take away time from their studies and can lead to poor academic performance.

Another negative effect of mobile phones is health issues. Spending too much time on a phone can lead to problems like eye strain, poor posture, and even sleep disorders. These can affect a student’s health and well-being.

In conclusion, mobile phones have both positive and negative effects on students. They can be great tools for learning, communication, and organization. But they can also cause distraction and health issues. It’s important for students to use their phones wisely and in a balanced way. This will help them get the most benefits from their phones while avoiding the negative effects.

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Should Teenagers Have Mobile Phones? Essay

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Introduction

Mobile phones for teenagers: negative impacts.

Mobile phones, which were invented a few decades ago, have become important communication devices utilized by society members of all ages. One age group that has made persistent use of mobile phones is teenagers. Teenagers’ overuse of phones has had a marked effect on their school lives. This paper will address the negative impacts that mobile phones are having on teenagers’ school life.

Mobile phones impose financial pressures on teenagers since these devices act as status symbol objects. Campbell (2005) confirms that most teenagers have the desire to upgrade their phones in order to fit in with their peers.

Since most teenagers do not have a source of income, they have to rely on their families to buy them phones and pay the phone bills. This raises issues of financial disputes and some teenagers end up stealing money from their parents to spend on their phones.

Teenagers use mobile phones to aid in cheating during exams. Students use their cell phones to communicate with each other during exams and therefore obtain answers to the test questions. Students can also cheat by getting answers from their phone memory or the internet.

Campbell (2005) documents that while teenagers have always engaged in cheating; mobile phones have increased the level of sophistication in cheating and decreased the chances of the misconduct being detected by the teacher.

Mobile phones are also problematic in school since they increase the level of disruption. Research indicates that teenagers are reluctant to switch off their phones while in class and this leads to learning activity being disrupted when the student receives a call or a text (Campbell, 2005).

Even when the student does not access his/her mobile phone, the excitement of finding out what the message is about results in the student losing interest in the class leading to poor academic outcomes.

Mobile phones have significant negative impacts on teenagers’ school life. This paper has demonstrated that mobile phones cause financial difficulties, enhance cheating, and disrupt lessons. Parents and teachers should therefore forbid teenagers from having mobile phones in school.

Campbell, M A 2005, The impact of the mobile phone on young people’s social life , Proceedings Social Change in the 21st Century Conference, QUT Carseldine, Brisbane.

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How Your Cell Phone Might Affect Your Brain

Research suggests smartphones impact the brain in a variety of ways

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Daniel B. Block, MD, is an award-winning, board-certified psychiatrist who operates a private practice in Pennsylvania.

praetorianphoto / Getty Images  

• Reduced Cognitive Ability
• Worse Social and Emotional Skills
• Disrupted Sleep
• Mental Laziness
• How to Protect Your Brain

We use our phones for many things, from making business calls to checking our email to communicating with friends and loved ones. Our phones have become an inextricable part of our lives. But does this reliance on smartphones have any impact on our brains?

Some recent research indicates that it might. Experts suggest that all of this phone use might affect our social and emotional regulation skills, disrupt our sleep, and turn us into lazy thinkers.

Kids are also using these devices more and more, which has led experts to question the possible long-term effects on development. One study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that the amount of time kids spend staring at digital screens rose 52% over a three-year period.

How this might affect development remains to be seen. However, it is a question of interest for healthcare practitioners, mental health professionals, educators, parents, and anyone who uses a smartphone regularly.

At a Glance

If you're like most people, you use your phone for everything from talking to friends to managing your money to even doing your job. Unfortunately, some experts think this reliance might actually be taking a toll on our brains. Some negative effects that might happen include changes in cognitive ability, problems with social or emotional skills, problems sleeping, and mental laziness. While it's not likely (or realistic) for people to forgo their phones, their are some things we can do to protect our brains from these damaging effects.

Phone Use Can Negatively Affect Cognitive Ability

Recent research suggests that smartphone usage does indeed affect the brain. Remember, however, that such research is still in the early stages. While we know a bit more about some of the short-term effects, the long-term effects remain to be seen. 

Changes in Brain Chemistry

Some evidence indicates that using mobile phones might lead to chemical changes in the brain. In one study presented to the Radiological Society of North America, researchers found that young people with a so-called internet and smartphone addiction actually demonstrated imbalances in brain chemistry compared to a control group.

Such changes might help explain why some people develop technology addictions, and why others find it so tough to be without their phones .

Reduced Cognitive Capacity

One well-known study in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research found that cognitive capacity was significantly reduced whenever a smartphone is within reach, even when the phone is off.

Researchers dubbed this effect the "brain drain hypothesis." Essentially, we are less likely to rely on our own cognitive resources if we know an information source is readily available.

A more recent meta-analysis also found that the presence of a smartphone was associated with decreases in working memory. This is consistent with earlier results, but the newer analysis indicates that the magnitude of this effect might not be as pronounced as previously believed.

One factor that researchers think might play a part in how strongly people are affected by this: FOMO, or the fear of missing out . Being distracted by our phones suggests that we are always, on some level, thinking about what is happening in the online world—and what we might be missing when we aren't using our phones.

In other words, if you always feel a nagging sense that you're missing out on a text, news story, or celebrity gossip, keeping your phone visible while you work might be a bad idea. Consider turning it off and putting it in another room when you need to get stuff done.

Worse Reading Comprehension

You've probably noticed that how you read online text differs from how you read the printed page. For many of us, it's common to skim online articles or skip around the page to find key points. But this isn't the only difference. Some evidence indicates that we understand less of what we read online than what we do in print.

One 2020 study found that reading on an electronic device such as a smartphone results in lower reading comprehension.

The exact reasons for this are unclear, but researchers have found that people sigh less often when reading on a smartphone. This impact on respiration is also associated with excess activity in the brain's prefrontal cortex and reduced reading comprehension.

Phone Affects Social-Emotional Skills

In the commentary appearing in the journal Pediatrics , researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine took a closer look at the available literature on smartphone and iPad use among very young children.  

Using such devices to entertain or pacify children, they warn, might have a detrimental effect on their social and emotional development.

The concern, researchers suggest is that kids will not develop their own internal self-regulation mechanisms if they always rely on being distracted by a digital device.

The experts suggest that hands-on activities and those involving direct human interaction are superior to interactive screen games. The use of mobile devices becomes especially problematic when such devices replace hands-on activities that help develop visual-motor and sensorimotor skills.

There are still many unknowns about how the use of mobile devices influences child development. What concerns many experts, however, is whether the overuse of smartphones and tablets might interfere with developing social and problem-solving skills better acquired during unstructured play with interaction with peers.

Phone Use May Lead to Disrupted Sleep

Using your smartphone or tablet at bedtime might be interfering with your sleep, and not because you’re staying up late to check your email, scrolling through your social media feeds, or playing a game of online trivia.

Sleep experts warn that the type of light emitted from your mobile device’s screen might just be messing up your sleep cycle, even after you turn off your device.

In a study published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences , a dozen adult participants were asked to either read on an iPad for four hours each night before bed or read printed books in dim lighting. After five consecutive nights, the two groups switched.

What the researchers discovered was that those who had read on an iPad before bedtime displayed a reduction in levels of melatonin , a hormone that increases throughout the evening and induces sleepiness. It also took these participants longer to fall asleep, and they experienced less REM sleep throughout the night.

The culprit? The type of blue light emitted by most mobile devices. The cells at the back of the eyes contain a light-sensitive protein that picks up specific wavelengths of light. These light-sensitive cells then send signals to the brain's "clock, " which regulates circadian rhythms.

Typically, blue light peaks in the morning, signaling your body to wake up for the day. Red light increases in the evening, signaling it is time to wind down and go to bed. By interrupting this natural cycle with the blue light emitted by mobile devices, the normal sleep-wake cycles are thrown out of whack.

These sleep interruptions can hurt your brain and mental health. Poor sleep is associated with various mental health problems , including mood changes, stress, anxiety, depression, and brain fog .

The next time you’re tempted to play with your mobile device in bed, think about the possible effect this might have on your brain and your sleep and consider picking up a paperback book instead.

Our Phones Might Be Making Us Mentally Lazy

Mobile devices don't just offer distraction—we also rely on them to provide information. We no longer have to memorize phone numbers or keep a Rolodex on our desks—all that information is conveniently stored on our phone’s contact list.

Instead of mulling over questions you might have about the world around you, you can just grab your phone and Google the answers. Instead of trying to remember appointments, meetings, or dates, you simply rely on an iPhone app to remind you of what you need to accomplish each day.

And some experts warn that this over-reliance on your mobile device for all the answers might lead to mental laziness. One study has found that there is a link between relying on a smartphone and mental laziness.

Smartphones don't necessarily turn people from deep thinkers into lazy thinkers, but the research does suggest that people who are naturally intuitive thinkers—or those who act based on instinct and emotions—tend to rely on their phones more frequently.

Researchers suggest that this can interfere with analytical and logical thinking. Some even wonder if using our phones too much might contribute to decreased intelligence.

Clearly, much more research is needed. Experts warn, however, that the use of mobile devices has far out-paced the available research on the subject. Scientists and doctors are just beginning to understand the potential short-term (and long-term) effects of smartphone use on the brain.

Mobile devices are bound to have their detriments, but the researchers also suggest that we have yet to fully understand how they might benefit the brain.

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So What Can You Do to Protect Your Brain?

Even though we might know that our phones might negatively affect our brains, the reality is that we need them. For many, they are a connection to information, resources, tools, and communication that are essential for daily life.

What we can do is work on becoming more intentional about how we use and interact with our phones. Strategies that can help:

Build Awareness

We need to know what we are dealing with before we can take steps to address it. This means tracking and assessing how much you are using your phone.

What are you using it for? What's your average daily screen time? Do you use your phone to soothe difficult emotions or avoid important tasks? Answering such questions can give you insight into problems you might want to address. 

Consider Setting Limits

Setting specific limits on your phone use can be helpful. It's important to be purposeful about your mobile phone use, but you should also consider what works for you.

For some people, this might involve removing certain apps from their phones. Others may find it helpful to use apps or phone settings to control how long they use certain apps or websites each day.

Some people find that it is helpful to have phone-free times or even entire days. For example, you might decide you won't use your phone after 7 PM or on Saturdays so you can fully focus on the other people in your life.

What This Means For You

While experts are beginning to get a clearer picture of the effects of cell phone on our brains, the reality is that there is still a lot that we don't know. The best thing you can do is consider some of these possible effects and take steps to be more intentional when using your phone. Give yourself breaks, set limits if you need to, and make sure that you aren't relying on tech devices to replace real-world connections.

Madigan S, Eirich R, Pador P, McArthur BA, Neville RD. Assessment of changes in child and adolescent screen time during the covid-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis . JAMA Pediatr . 2022;176(12):1188. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.4116

Radiology Society of North America. Smartphone Addiction Creates Imbalance in Brain . November 2017.

Ward AF, Duke K, Gneezy A, Box MW. Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity . Journal of the Association for Consumer Research . 2017;2(2):140-154. doi:10.1086/691462

Parry DA. Does the mere presence of a smartphone impact cognitive performance? A meta-analysis of the 'brain drain effect .' PsyArXiv ; 2022. doi:10.31234/osf.io/tnyda

Scientific American. Is your phone actually draining your brain ?

Honma M, Masaoka Y, Iizuka N, et al. Reading on a smartphone affects sigh generation, brain activity, and comprehension . Sci Rep . 2022;12(1):1589. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-05605-0

Radesky JS, Schumacher J, Zuckerman B. Mobile and interactive media use by young children: The good, the bad, and the unknown . Pediatrics . 2015;135(1):1-3. doi:10.1542/peds.2014-2251

Chang AM, Aeschbach D, Duffy JF, Czeisler CA.  Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A . 2015;112(4):1232-1237. doi:10.1073/pnas.1418490112

Scott AJ, Webb TL, Rowse G.  Does improving sleep lead to better mental health? . A protocol for a meta-analytic review of randomised controlled trials.  BMJ Open . 2017;7(9):e016873. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016873

Barr N, Pennycook G, Stolz JA, Fugelsang JA.  The brain in your pocket: Evidence that smartphones are used to supplant thinking . Computers in Human Behavior . 2015;48:473-480. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.029

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Uses of Mobile Phones Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on uses of mobile phones.

Mobile phones are one of the most commonly used gadgets in today’s world. Everyone from a child to an adult uses mobile phones these days. They are indeed very useful and help us in so many ways.

Mobile phones indeed make our lives easy and convenient but at what cost? They are a blessing only till we use it correctly. As when we use them for more than a fixed time, they become harmful for us.

Uses of Mobile Phone

We use mobile phones for almost everything now. Gone are the days when we used them for only calling. Now, our lives revolve around it. They come in use for communicating through voice, messages, and mails. We can also surf the internet using a phone. Most importantly, we also click photos and record videos through our mobile’s camera.

The phones of this age are known as smartphones . They are no less than a computer and sometimes even more. You can video call people using this phone, and also manage your official documents. You get the chance to use social media and play music through it.

Moreover, we see how mobile phones have replaced computers and laptops . We carry out all the tasks through mobile phones which we initially did use our computers. We can even make powerpoint presentations on our phones and use it as a calculator to ease our work.

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Disadvantages of Mobile Phones

While mobile phones are very beneficial, they also come to a lot of disadvantages. Firstly, they create a distance between people. As people spend time on their phones, they don’t talk to each other much. People will sit in the same room and be busy on their phones instead of talking to each other.

Subsequently, phones waste a lot of time. People get distracted by them easily and spend hours on their phones. They are becoming dumber while using smartphones . They do not do their work and focus on using phones.

Most importantly, mobile phones are a cause of many ailments. When we use phones for a long time, our eyesight gets weaker. They cause strain on our brains. We also suffer from headaches, watery eyes, sleeplessness and more.

Moreover, mobile phones have created a lack of privacy in people’s lives. As all your information is stored on your phone and social media , anyone can access it easily. We become vulnerable to hackers. Also, mobile phones consume a lot of money. They are anyway expensive and to top it, we buy expensive gadgets to enhance our user experience.

In short, we see how it is both a bane and a boon. It depends on us how we can use it to our advantage. We must limit our usage of mobile phones and not let it control us. As mobile phones are taking over our lives, we must know when to draw the line. After all, we are the owners and not the smartphone.

FAQs on Uses of Mobile Phones

Q.1 How do mobile phones help us?

A.1 Mobile phones are very advantageous. They help us in making our lives easy and convenient. They help us communicate with our loved ones and carry out our work efficiently. Furthermore, they also do the work of the computer, calculator, and cameras.

Q.2 What is the abuse of mobile phone use?

A.2 People are nowadays not using but abusing mobile phones. They are using them endlessly which is ruining their lives. They are the cause of many ailments. They distract us and keep us away from important work. Moreover, they also compromise with our privacy making us vulnerable to hackers.

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current events conversation

What Students Are Saying About How Much They Use Their Phones, and Whether We Should Be Worried

New research challenges assumptions about the negative effects of social media and smartphones on children. We asked teenagers whether their parents should worry about how much time they spend on their devices.

By The Learning Network

Please note: This post is part of The Learning Network’s ongoing Current Events Conversation feature. We invite students to react to the news via our daily writing prompts and, each week, we publish a selection of their comments.

We frequently ask students about their relationship with screens, but a question we posed this week seems to have struck a chord with the teenagers who comment on our writing prompts.

Inspired by the article “ Panicking About Your Kids’ Phones? New Research Says Don’t ,” we asked students: Should the adults in your life be worried by how much you use your phone?

We heard from over 300 teenagers who gave a flurry of nuanced, thoughtful and enlightening responses. In fact, their comments were so good that we decided to feature only this prompt in this week’s Current Events Conversation, instead of the usual three , so we can highlight as many responses as possible.

Some students admitted to spending upward of eight hours a day online, with the majority averaging around two to four hours. Some said their devices were a reasonable escape from the pressures of teenage life, while others explained they were essential for school. And still others raised an insightful question: Why is their “phone addiction” perceived as more harmful than that of the adults in their lives?

As you’ll see below, one thing was crystal clear in their reflections: These teenagers spend a lot of time thinking about their phone usage. And they have a critical lens not only on how much they use their phones, but also on how it affects their education, emotional life and relationships.

Read on for a fuller scope of the comments, but before you do, we want to offer a warm welcome to new classes from Ames High School, Iowa ; Carney ; Florida ; Fort Mill High School ; Georgia ; Hightstown High School, N.J. ; Nelson County High School ; New Berlin, Wis. ; New York ; and Pennsylvania .

Please note: Student comments have been lightly edited for length, but otherwise appear exactly as they were originally submitted.

I know I’m on my phone too much.

I think that I spend a little too much time on my phone per day. And by a little, I mean a lot. I’m not sure my average but I know I could be going to bed a lot earlier and get my work done quicker if I just put it down. I do many things on my phone like text people, snapchat, play games, and so on.

I think it does have a positive benefit on my well being because without it, I would not have friendships and relationships I have today. The negative effects it has on me is time usage and keeping me from doing work and going to bed on time. I am worried about being on my phone too much but I don’t think it interferes with me being social, especially in this day and age.

My average screen time is probably about 12 hours a day. I worry a lot about how much time I spend on my phone. But the way I socialize is through my phone. I use social media to communicate, and I have to use my phone to make calls and text. But whenever I have to study, I pull out my phone and go on it for about an hour …

When it is time to go to sleep, I go on my phone in the dark with dark mode on. My bed has my charger connected to it so I can easily stay up all night. I want to remove it but because I am so addicted to my phone, I do not. One time I fell asleep at 2 am because I was on my phone, and it made me extremely tired (this was on a school night).

— Jessica Chen, J.R. Masterman, Philadelphia, PA

Since I got an iPhone, I have spent more time on my phone because of social media apps. I caught myself on multiple occasions telling myself “only 15 more minutes and then I’ll start my homework,” but then I end up spending 30 minutes on my phone. When I have tried to use my phone less I end up watching tv, so I just go from one type of a screen to the next.

— Allison Ciero, Glenbard West HS Glen Ellyn, IL

I spend too much time on my phone. I sometimes think about how much I am on my phone and I’m disgusted with how much time I feel like I’m wasting. But the truth is, I do a lot more than scroll through social media or watch stupid videos on my phone. My phone is a portable library that carries all of my favorite books on it. And those stupid videos and posts sometimes completely change my day for the better.

— Mason Evans, Hoggard High School Wilmington, NC

On average, I spend about 6 hours a day on my phone. It is spent with me going on social media, playing games, or watching Netflix. Every weekend, a notification pops up showing me how much time I have spent and each week it has gone up. I am starting to become a lot more cautious about how much time I spend on my phone because it is starting to worry me. My phone has become something that I always have to have and it never leaves my side. It has gotten in the way of me studying and spending time with my family which has started to worry me. I believe that parents should know how much time their kid is using their phone but I don’t think that they should act upon it.

— Mark, Hightstown

Teenagers should monitor their own phone use.

I understand a little micromanaging when it comes to technology time. However, by the time we reach high school, we should all be responsible for ourselves in that realm, to turn in homework, to know our time limits. It is time for the parents to release their grasp unless it is absolutely necessary.

It is our job as teenagers to learn what happens when we stay on our phones too long and we don’t get enough sleep or don’t finish a homework assignment, we won’t understand the consequences if we don’t learn for ourselves.

— Josh Reifel, Glenbard West, Glen Ellyn, IL

While I stand by this statement, I would also like to point out that our parents didn’t grow up with this stuff, and they may not know how to handle our usage in the best way. Often times I find my parents using the phone — that they bought for us — as punishment. They threaten to take it away or to throw it out, this only makes out subconscious want it more. Moreover, they make us feel guilty for being born in a world where we do have access to these devices — as if we could help it. They say “when I was a kid we didn’t have to talk to our friends all the time, we would wait to see them the next day at school.” They try us guilt you into not using which once again, will only make us want it more to spite them.

— kenna royce, Glenbard West HS Glen Ellyn, Il

While some parents see it beneficial to limit teens usage on phones, others don’t take any action. For example, my parents have always trusted me to be responsible in my time management, and balancing school, Church, and friends. However, I do understand that my parents pay for my phone, and data usage, and I would willingly comply if they had any restrictions or rules. Phones, however, often rely as a crutch for parents, meaning they often incorrectly blame their child’s issue, or challenges for how much time they spend on their phone.

— Anna Atwood, Bryant High School Arkansas

In observing my friends and classmates, I think that most of us have a handle on what an appropriate amount of screen time is. Social media can be a breeding ground for bullying, which can then lead to depression and anxiety, but I’m not entirely sure that would correlate with simply spending more time on devices. Hopefully, if parents instill the value of limitations while kids are young, they will be able to control themselves appropriately in the future.

— Sarah Song, Ames High School

I feel like I’m extremely in touch with my personal media usage, but it isn’t easy. Apps are designed to keep you on them as long as possible, and sometimes it’s horribly hard to put down a phone after seeing a Snapchat from your friend pop up. After checking just now, I spent an average of 1 hour 58 minutes on my phone last month. Just shy of 2 hours, which is the recommendation maximum time adolescents should spend on non-education related screens. Many of my peers use them 6+ hours daily.

I notice an exact correlation between the amount of time I’m on my phone and how productive I am that given day. If I get out of bed and don’t immediately pick up my phone, I feel like I can get ready faster, and feel more energized and motivated.

Sometimes, if I have a lot of homework one night, I plug my phone in in a separate room, so I won’t think about it. It’s just so easy to forget about the essay you need to write if you unlock your phone and start messing around. They’re excellent distractions.

I couldn’t agree more with the statement that “phones increase anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation among teenagers.” I’ve seen it happen in myself and my peers. In the 3 years I’ve had a phone, there have been too many nights I regret sacrificing sleep for texting to a friend online or getting lost on YouTube. It’s becoming more important to be aware of how our phones affect our lives as they take over more and more aspects of our days.

— Mollie Brinker, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

Who is supervising how much adults use their phones?

I think that in some ways it could be good for adults to monitor how much children are on their phones today. However, who is going to monitor the adults? What I have noticed while growing up in this world of technology, is that so many adults around me are on their phone just as often as the children. I think it can be difficult to stay away from our phones when everyone around you is on their phones. I think we have to accept technology’s role and try to be as responsible with it as we can.

— Kaylee Phillips, Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn, IL

Some evenings at my house consists of our family in the same room, each of us on our same devices. Adults should worry about cell phone usage, in both their life and their children’s lives.

A part of the issue is that parents can use their devices just as much as the kids. Adults must realize that they too must change. If they take their kid’s phone away, they should put theirs away too. They should push their child to have real-life experiences, where words can’t be misinterpreted.

— Evan Lippolis, Ames High School

Screens are affecting our mental and physical health.

I feel like phones have a negative effect on the mental stability of most teenagers today. There are so many things we worry about now … “How many snaps have I got this hour?”, “Has he seen my story yet?”, “I wonder if he’s just ignoring me?”

Our phones present us with an ultimatum, Go out and be social, or stay in and get on facetime. It’s not the same, there are certain endorphins your mind releases when you are physically in contact with another person. Human interaction is healthy.

My phone brings me mixed emotions, and I kind of rely on my phone for almost everything. Before I had a phone my life was so easy and I was a social butterfly, now I’m a 17 year old girl who comes home from work and watches a movie on my phone until my eyes physically will not open.

— Brooklyn Harcrow, Lubbock, TX

I usually spend about 3 hours a week on my phone. I grew up in Haiti, so most of the time I am in contact with my friends back home. When we lived in Haiti, FaceTime was a way that I could not only talk to my sister, who was at Iowa State, but we could also see her.

My phone has had negative impacts on my health. I have had chronic migraines that have been affected by my posture, which is aggravated by being hunched over my phone all day. I also find myself in more pain after even a short time on my phone. Social media has also left me feeling left out and more discouraged about my own life. As someone who is in a new atmosphere and environment, when I see on social media my friends’ activities I feel more isolated and alone.

— Kerlande Mompremier, Ames High School

I most definitely see the connection between higher levels of stress and being on your phone for a more than needed amount of time. Scrolling through social media and looking at small square sized snapshots of a person’s “picture perfect life” can really have an effect on both self-esteem and mental health. The world and especially the younger generations must learn to spark creativity and imagination. Those things can only be formed through one’s mind, experiences, and thoughts, not any phone or device on the planet can provide them.

— Sadie Dunne, Hoggard High school in Wilmington, NC

For me personally, I tend to find myself veering away from my phone during stressful times because I feel like all it does is add to it. I have anxiety and have seen that the negative effects from social media only add to that anxiousness. I agree that phone usage and constant usage of social media can definitely increase anxiety and depression, if you allow yourself to get involved so much you can’t return to a normal lifestyle without it. I think that as I feel like I’m starting to feel more anxious and stressed, my phone does not help the situation but makes it worse, so I try to stay away from it during these times.

— Taylor Tomlinson, Lubbock, TX

Social media has made me feel more connected to others, not less.

Speaking personally, I can recall many times in which social media has helped me feel less lonely than I otherwise would have been. I have severe anxiety, so the idea of socializing with people in a less formal setting, such as in a lunchroom, or outside of class is terrifying to me. So, as a result, I am often alone during these periods. I’ll go off and find my own corner, and I sit and have to watch as those around me have fun with their friends and socialize.

I have gone through this process near-daily for ten years, and I am confident that without social media to fall back on, I would have been driven mad. Social media makes me feel as though there are people out there I can talk to, and that I can control the conversation however I like. I can have friends that I respond to at my own pace, leaving me room to better formulate my responses.

— Jackson Bumgarner, Bryant High School, AR

My mom is a really busy woman and she’s not always there for me and my phone has been my shelter since 5th grade. When I came home feeling sad in school, a couple of youtube videos can cheer me up. Smartphones also make contacting friends and families easier making me less lonely during my sad times. The use of phone also opens a new window of opportunities, I learnt how to edit and shoot videos from youtube. There was a time when my mental health was just not great and the internet saved me.

— shirley, fhs

My first friend was an online friend. I was in fifth grade and I was obsessed with Hamilton, and would spend hours reading about and listening to the songs. My family was on vacation in WildWood, and we were living in a small hotel. I was swimming in the pool and a kid came up to me, and I found out we both liked Hamilton a lot, so we started talking. At the end of the vacation the kid told me her email and we started texting on hangouts. We still text to this day. My phone played a big part in letting me stay in touch, and it built my relationship with her.

— Arianna Andriyevsky, Julia R. Masterman

More screen time can be beneficial.

As the life of a teenager continues to increase in its complexity and demands, the resources and tools a smartphone can provide help keep teenagers grounded. So, before adults chastise us for our use of phones (while they’re leveling up in Candy Crush) it’s important to show that phones are very powerful tools, sometimes too powerful.

With how many activities a teenager can be involved in these days, smartphones help make more productive use of their time, keeping up with meetings, get-togethers, and updates. Whether it be communicating with other club members, or simply catching up with friends, these communication tools help bring people closer without necessitating time-consuming travel.

— Sayre S., Ames High School

I am on my phone about three hours a day. The majority of this is spent on social media apps like snapchat or twitter and listening to music. My phone has a positive influence on me. I feel more connected to the world and what is going on and while that is not always a good thing it is nice to be informed and updated on events within seconds.

— Mehdi Sebghati, Ames High School

My average screen time is about 40 minutes per week. I typically look at news, talk with my relatives in China through WeChat, or go on Youtube to watch cooking videos … My phone does help me build my Chinese skills when texting in WeChat. On WeChat, I can also build relationships with my relatives and friends that I cannot meet face-to-face.

However, my parents are still very worried about my time on my phone. That’s because I have glasses, and my eyesight has been worsening every year. They express their concern by speaking my name in a warning tone when they think I’ve been on my phone long enough. I listen to them, because I know that they are trying to do the best for them.

— Daniella Liang, J.R. Masterman

Teenagers shouldn’t be on their phones as much.

I think adults should be worried about how much their child is on their phone. If my child was constantly on their phone I would be mad because it is disrespectful when you are with someone and they won’t get off their phone. I get offended and annoyed when my friends are on their phones instead of talking to me and I wouldn’t want to be that rude to someone so if my parents told me I shouldn’t be on my phone I think that’s a good thing. Parents are supposed to teach their children how to talk, walk, and ride a bike, they should teach them proper manners and to not go be on your phone for too long.

— Anna Diab, Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn, IL

The answer to this question is different for me than many of my peers because unlike many “savvy” teens I have a flip phone. When I was fifteen I decided to stick with a flip phone, it solved my basic needs. I’m currently seventeen and have friends. It came down to me seeing kids and people on their phones at dangerous and inappropriate times. They were on their while driving, in school, and at the supper table. When I see somebody on their phone it reminds me that there is more to life. I am on my phone for less than ten minutes a day, still, I have survived. I can call and text people without the hassle of getting social media notifications. I’m not saying smartphones are bad they can be very useful. I just prefer reality.

— Ethan Morton, Ames, Iowa

I hate that I’m one of those teenagers who have a mini heart attack when they don’t feel their phone in their pocket. I know I’m not on my phone nearly as much as some of my peers, but even the time I do spend there I resent. Despite what the article says about technology not having any real negative influence on mental health, I can’t help but feel like it causes other problems.

We text and DM people when we have something to say, leaving behind outdated voice-calling and — gasp — that archaic practice of talking in person. So much of communication is nonverbal. Many today struggle to maintain eye contact, pay full undivided attention to others, and meaningfully interact in person. Screens are our modern-day masks and boy, do we love hiding behind them. While maybe it is true that technology doesn’t directly connect to the rise in mental disease and anxiety, it leads to a host of other problems, most prominent among these being social decay.

— Grace Robertson, Hoggard High School Wilmington, NC

Phones are not the problem.

Basically I have always had really bad anxiety way before I got a phone. Once I got to middle school and I started to mature it got worse because I was finally able to see all the bad in the world that my parents had protected me from. Which I believe is one of the leading factors of my depression. But once I got a phone I was so happy because I was always able to communicate with my friends no matter where I was. Then when I was given social media I really felt connected because I was able to get updates on what everyone was doing and what was going on in the world, but then when my parents found out about my depression they complete ignored the fact that they had sheltered me my entire life and blamed it all on my phone so now I do not have social media and I still feel the same way but I feel less connected and more isolated.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think that phones have ruined a generation I think it’s the parents, they don’t realize that sheltering us is hurting us …

— Caleb, America

I feel like the anxiety, stress, and depression are not the result of my phone but from the expectations from parents and teachers, how unsafe I feel in my school, from the medication making me “normal and calm,” and from the news where nothing good is heard. I don’t think my phone stops me from socializing or from sleeping, and I am constantly trying to put down my phone. My parents will warn me once or twice but they are on it as much as me.

But I believe that adults try to use phones as a scapegoat instead of admitting that there are bigger issues, such as global warming, political divisions etc. that teens face or the problems that they themselves cause with high expectations.

— Lilian, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

Home — Essay Samples — Information Science and Technology — Smartphone — The impact of smartphone on daily life

Impact of Smartphones on Adolescents: The Problem of Addiction

• Categories: Impact of Technology Negative Impact of Technology Smartphone

About this sample

Words: 1233 |

Published: Nov 19, 2018

Words: 1233 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, signs and symptoms of smartphone addiction, the impact of smartphone addiction, works cited, impacts in the physical health, impacts in the psychological health.

• Increasing loneliness and depression:
• Feeling anxiety:
• Increasing stress:
• Disturbing your sleep:
• Encouraging self-absorption:

Impacts in the Social Health

• 70% check their phones in the morning within just one hour of getting up
• 56% check their phones before going to bed
• 48% check their phones over the weekend
• 51% constantly check their phones during vacation
• 44% reported they would feel very anxious and irritable if they did not interact with their phones within a week.
• Roberts, J. A., & David, M. E. (2016). My life has become a major distraction from my cell phone: Partner phubbing and relationship satisfaction among romantic partners. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 134-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.058
• Chóliz, M. (2010). Mobile phone addiction: A point of issue. Addiction Research & Theory, 18(5), 489-498. https://doi.org/10.3109/16066351003628299
• Demirci, K., Akgönül, M., & Akpinar, A. (2015). Relationship of smartphone use severity with sleep quality, depression, and anxiety in university students. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 4(2), 85-92. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.4.2015.010
• Elhai, J. D., Levine, J. C., Dvorak, R. D., & Hall, B. J. (2016). Problematic smartphone use: A conceptual overview and systematic review of relations with anxiety and depression psychopathology. Journal of Affective Disorders, 207, 251-259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.08.030
• Thomée, S., Härenstam, A., & Hagberg, M. (2011). Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults—A prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health, 11(1), 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-66
• Bianchi, A., & Phillips, J. G. (2005). Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8(1), 39-51. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2005.8.39
• Lee, S. Y., & Kim, M. S. (2017). Mobile phone addiction and its associated factors in college students. Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, 50(3), 179-183. https://doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.16.086
• Chóliz, M., Villanueva, V., & Chóliz, M. C. (2009). Factors influencing mobile phone addiction in adolescence: The role of self-esteem and the need to belong. In R. Zheng, S. Y. Li, Z. Hou, & J. Liu (Eds.), Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare (pp. 923-932). CRC Press.
• Samaha, M., & Hawi, N. S. (2016). Relationships among smartphone addiction, stress, academic performance, and satisfaction with life. Computers in Human Behavior, 57, 321-325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.12.045
• Billieux, J., Maurage, P., Lopez-Fernandez, O., Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2015). Can disordered mobile phone use be considered a behavioral addiction? An update on current evidence and a comprehensive model for future research. Current Addiction Reports, 2(2), 156-162. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-015-0054-y

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Bans may help protect classroom focus, but districts need to stay mindful of students’ sense of connection, experts say

Students around the world are being separated from their phones.

In 2020, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that 77 percent of U.S. schools had moved to prohibit cellphones for nonacademic purposes. In September 2018, French lawmakers outlawed cellphone use for schoolchildren under the age of 15. In China, phones were banned country-wide for schoolchildren last year.

Supporters of these initiatives have cited links between smartphone use and bullying and social isolation and the need to keep students focused on schoolwork.

77% Of U.S. schools moved to ban cellphones for nonacademic purposes as of 2020, according to the National Center for Education Statistics

But some Harvard experts say instructors and administrators should consider learning how to teach with tech instead of against it, in part because so many students are still coping with academic and social disruptions caused by the pandemic. At home, many young people were free to choose how and when to use their phones during learning hours. Now, they face a school environment seeking to take away their main source of connection.

“Returning back to in-person, I think it was hard to break the habit,” said Victor Pereira, a lecturer on education and co-chair of the Teaching and Teaching Leadership Program at the Graduate School of Education.

Through their students, he and others with experience both in the classroom and in clinical settings have seen interactions with technology blossom into important social connections that defy a one-size-fits-all mindset. “Schools have been coming back, trying to figure out, how do we readjust our expectations?” Pereira added.

It’s a hard question, especially in the face of research suggesting that the mere presence of a smartphone can undercut learning .

Michael Rich , an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says that phones and school don’t mix: Students can’t meaningfully absorb information while also texting, scrolling, or watching YouTube videos.

“The human brain is incapable of thinking more than one thing at a time,” he said. “And so what we think of as multitasking is actually rapid-switch-tasking. And the problem with that is that switch-tasking may cover a lot of ground in terms of different subjects, but it doesn’t go deeply into any of them.”

Pereira’s approach is to step back — and to ask whether a student who can’t resist the phone is a signal that the teacher needs to work harder on making a connection. “Two things I try to share with my new teachers are, one, why is that student on the phone? What’s triggering getting on your cell phone versus jumping into our class discussion, or whatever it may be? And then that leads to the second part, which is essentially classroom management.

“Design better learning activities, design learning activities where you consider how all of your students might want to engage and what their interests are,” he said. He added that allowing phones to be accessible can enrich lessons and provide opportunities to use technology for school-related purposes.

Mesfin Awoke Bekalu, a research scientist in the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at the Chan School, argues that more flexible classroom policies can create opportunities for teaching tech-literacy and self-regulation.

“There is a huge, growing body of literature showing that social media platforms are particularly helpful for people who need resources or who need support of some kind, beyond their proximate environment,” he said. A study he co-authored by Rachel McCloud and Vish Viswanath for the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness shows that this is especially true for marginalized groups such as students of color and LGBTQ students. But the findings do not support a free-rein policy, Bekalu stressed.

In the end, Rich, who noted the particular challenges faced by his patients with attention-deficit disorders and other neurological conditions, favors a classroom-by-classroom strategy. “It can be managed in a very local way,” he said, adding: “It’s important for parents, teachers, and the kids to remember what they are doing at any point in time and focus on that. It’s really only in mono-tasking that we do very well at things.”

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Essay on Disadvantages and Advantages of Mobile Phones

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Mobile Phones have become an integral part of our day-to-day life. Teaching children to use their phones more thoughtfully can benefit them in both their personal and academic lives and help them become more effective citizens of society.

A mobile phone is a personal communication device that uses a wireless connection to do various functions such as sending and receiving messages, making and receiving calls, and accessing the internet. This article will help the readers to have an overview of the examples of different types of essays on the topic “Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Phones”.

Let’s dive right in.

Table of Content

Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Phone Essay 100 words

200 words essay on advantages and disadvantages of mobile phone, advantages and disadvantages of mobile phone essay 300 words, advantages of mobile phone, disadvantages of mobile phone, 10 lines essay on advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones.

There are advantages and disadvantages to mobile phones. First, let’s discuss the positive aspects. Our mobile phones facilitate easy communication with friends and family. With our phones, we may use the internet to discover new things as well. With their maps, they make it easy for us to locate our route, and we can even snap photos with them.

However, there are also some drawbacks. Overuse of phones by some individuals can be problematic. It might cause eye pain or even make it difficult to fall asleep. Furthermore, excessive phone use might cause us to lose focus when driving or walking, which is risky.

Thus, we must use our phones responsibly. It’s important to remember to take pauses and not use them excessively. Similar to consuming candy, moderation is key when it comes to this. Utilizing our phones sensibly may make them enjoyable and beneficial. However, we must exercise caution so as not to allow them to cause us issues.

With so many benefits, mobile phones have become an essential part of our life. They facilitate communication and let us stay in touch with loved ones no matter where we are or when we want. Additionally, mobile phones offer instant access to information, which keeps us up to date on global events. They are also useful for navigation, taking pictures to save memories, and even handling our money using mobile banking.

But there are also some disadvantages to these advantages. Overuse of a phone can become addictive, diverting our attention and decreasing our productivity. Extended periods of screen usage can lead to health problems like strained eyes and disturbed sleep cycles. Other drawbacks include privacy issues and the possibility of cyberbullying, which emphasise how crucial it is to use mobile phones properly.

In conclusion, even while mobile phones are incredibly beneficial for communication, information access, and convenience, it is important to consider the possible risks they may pose to one’s health, privacy, and general well-being. Maintaining a balance in the use of mobile phones is crucial to maximise their benefits while minimising their drawbacks.

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Mobile phones also referred to as cell phones, are now an essential component of our everyday existence. As with every technology, they have disadvantages in addition to their many advantages.

• Earning Money: People can investigate flexible job choices by using mobile technology, which offers potential for generating revenue through a variety of channels, including freelance work, online markets, and gig economy applications .
• Navigation: Cell phones with built-in GPS technology make travelling easier by making it simple for users to get directions, explore new areas, and successfully navigate uncharted territory.
• Photography: The inclusion of high-quality cameras in mobile phones has made photography more accessible to a wider audience by encouraging innovation, enabling quick moment capture and sharing, and providing a platform for individual expression.
• Safety: Cell phones help people stay safe because they give them a way to communicate in an emergency, ask for assistance, get in touch with authorities, and keep aware of their surroundings.
• Health Problems: Extended usage of mobile phones is linked to possible long-term health hazards resulting from continuous exposure to radiofrequency radiation, as well as physical health problems such as soreness in the neck and back.
• Cyber Bullying: Cell phones provide people with a platform to harass, threaten, or disseminate damaging information online, which puts the victims’ mental health in serious danger.
• Road Accidents: Cell phone usage while driving increases the risk of distracted driving and traffic accidents, endangering the safety of both pedestrians and drivers.
• Noise & Disturbance: M obile phone use may cause noise pollution in public areas, which can disrupt the peace and discomfort of others. This includes loud phone conversations, notification noises, and other mobile phone-related disruptions.
• Easy Communication: Instantaneous and convenient communication is made possible by cell phones, which also develop real-time connections and bridge geographical distances, improving interpersonal relationships and job productivity.
• Online Education: Since the development of mobile technology, more people have had access to educational materials than ever before, which enables them to pursue online courses, pick up new skills, and engage in lifelong learning at their own speed.
• Social Connectivity: Through the use of various social media platforms, cell phones enable social engagement and networking, keeping individuals in touch with friends, family, and coworkers and promoting a feeling of community and shared experiences.
• Banking & Transactions: The ease with which users may manage their accounts, transfer money, and complete transactions is made possible by mobile banking applications, which lessen the need for in-person bank visits and increase overall financial accessibility.
• Promoting Buisness: Cell phones are effective instruments for marketing, communication, and company promotion. They let companies advertise to a wider audience, interact creatively with clients, and promote their goods and services.
• Entertainment: Mobile phones have completely changed the entertainment sector by giving consumers access to a vast array of games, streaming services, and multimedia material that can be enjoyed while on the go.
• Emergency Assistance: When it comes to emergency circumstances, cell phones are invaluable since they provide prompt access to emergency services, facilitate communication during emergencies, and serve as a lifeline for those in need of rapid aid.
• Addiction & Distraction: Cell phone addiction may result from excessive use, which also makes people easily distracted, reduces productivity, and lessens in-person social contacts.
• Sleeping Disorders: Due to the blue light that cell phones emit, prolonged use of them, especially right before bed, can interfere with sleep cycles, impair the generation of melatonin, and worsen insomnia and other sleeping problems.
• Hearing issues: Long-term exposure to high decibel levels via headphones or phone conversations can cause hearing issues, such as loss or impairment of hearing, and pose a serious risk to the health of the auditory system.
• Vision Problems: Digital eye strain, which can result in symptoms including dry eyes, headaches, and impaired vision, may be exacerbated by excessive cell phone screen usage. This condition may eventually cause long-term visual issues.
• Privacy & Security Risks: Since personal data is vulnerable to hacking, unauthorised access, and abuse, there is a danger to both individuals and organisations while using mobile phones, which has led to worries about privacy breaches and security threats.
• Wastage of Time: Using mobile phones excessively for unproductive purposes, including endlessly browsing social media or playing games, may lead to a major time waster that interferes with both personal and professional obligations.

The below are the 10 lines on advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones in English:

• Mobile phones help us talk to friends and family easily.
• They provide quick access to information through the internet.
• Mobiles make it easy to find our way using maps and GPS.
• We can capture memories with cameras on our phones.
• Banking and managing money is convenient with mobile apps.
• Mobiles offer entertainment with games and videos.
• Using phones too much can be bad for our health.
• It might disturb our sleep and hurt our eyes.
• Too much phone use can be a distraction and affect our work.
• Privacy can be at risk, and there might be issues like cyberbullying.

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FAQs on Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Phones Essay

What are the advantages of using mobile phones.

The advantages of using mobile phones are that they make our lives easier. They help us in easy communication, online education, banking and transactions, safety, emergency assistance etc.

What are the disadvantages of using mobile phones?

Some disadvantages of using mobile phones include addiction & distractions, sleeping disorders, hearing aids, noise & disturbance, wastage of time etc.

Why are mobile phones important?

Mobile phones are very important nowadays because they make an individual’s life more convenient and are the perfect way to stay connected with everyone.

How does using mobile phones affect an individual’s brain?

Research from the US National Institute of Health indicates that using a cell phone damages our brains. According to their findings, our brains utilise more sugar after every fifty minutes of phone usage. This is because sugar is an indicator of increased activity, which is detrimental for the brain.

What are the advantages of phone and disadvantages of phone?

Mobile phones offer communication and provide us the access to enormous information, but at the same time they can be addictive, cause distractions and invade our privacy.

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• Mobile Connectivity in Emerging Economies
• 2. Majorities say mobile phones are good for society, even amid concerns about their impact on children

Table of Contents

• 1. Use of smartphones and social media is common across most emerging economies
• 3. People say the internet brings economic and educational benefits – but some are concerned about the societal impact of social media
• Acknowledgments
• Methodology
• Appendix A: About the focus groups
• Appendix B: Compiled usage figures
• Appendix C: Detailed tables

Across the 11 countries surveyed, people’s attitudes toward mobile phones tend to be largely positive. In most of the countries, a large majority say mobile phones have been good for them personally, and many also say mobile phones positively impact education and the economy. Mobile phone users also overwhelmingly agree that their phones help them to stay in touch with faraway friends and family and keep them informed of the latest news and information.

At the same time, people’s positive attitudes are paired with concerns about the impact of mobile phones on certain aspects of society – and especially their impact on children. In eight of these countries, a majority of the public says that the increasing use of mobile phones has had a bad impact on children today. And when asked about the potential risks of mobile phone use, majorities in every country say people should be very concerned that mobile phones might expose children to harmful or inappropriate content.

I think mobile phones have made the world like a global village. MAN, 24, KENYA

Overwhelming majorities say mobile phones have been more positive than negative for them personally

In nine of the 11 countries surveyed, large majorities say mobile phones have been mostly good for them personally. In Venezuela, people are more skeptical of the role mobile phones are playing in their lives. There, 49% say mobile phones have been mostly good for them personally, while 47% say they have been mostly bad. Elsewhere, no more than 11% in any country say mobile phones have been mostly a bad thing for them.

In nine of these 11 countries, majorities also say mobile phones have had a positive impact on society. But in most countries, people report less enthusiasm about the societal impact of mobile devices than about their personal impact. For example, while 82% of Jordanians say mobile phones have mostly been good for them personally, just 53% express positive views about their societal impact. And in Colombia, Tunisia and Mexico, there is at least a 10-percentage-point difference between shares who see the personal benefits of mobile phones and those who see the society-wide benefits.

Regardless of the type of mobile phone people use – basic, feature or smart – most have similar views about how their lives and societies have been impacted by their devices. 9 Across all surveyed countries, basic or feature phone users are just as likely as smartphone users in their country to say mobile phones have mostly been a positive thing for them personally. And in all countries but Mexico, similar shares of smartphone users and those with less advanced devices say the societal impact of mobile phones has mostly been good. In Mexico, where smartphone use is relatively low compared with other countries , smartphone users are somewhat more likely than basic or feature phone users to say the impact on society has been mostly positive (77% vs. 69%).

But there are some differences between mobile phone users and those who do not use a mobile phone at all. In five of these 11 countries (India, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico and South Africa), mobile users of any kind are more likely than non-users to say that mobile devices have had a mostly positive impact on society.

Mobile phone users have mixed views about upsides and downsides of their phones, are especially divided over whether they ‘couldn’t live without’ phones

In every country surveyed, mobile phone users are more likely to say their phone is something that frees them rather than something that ties them down. At least 63% in five countries (Kenya, Vietnam, Venezuela, South Africa and the Philippines) characterize their phone as something that frees them, whereas users in other countries are somewhat more ambivalent. For example, while 46% of Jordanian mobile phone users say their phone frees them, 25% say it ties them down, and 21% volunteer that neither statement holds true. In Lebanon, 40% of mobile phone users say their phone frees them, compared with 30% who say it ties them down.

“It’s like the mobile phones become your partner. WOMAN, 40, PHILIPPINES

Across the 11 countries surveyed, mobile phone users are somewhat more divided when it comes to whether their phone helps save them time or makes them waste time. In seven countries, larger shares say their phone helps save them time. Kenyans are especially likely to see their phone as a time saver; 84% of mobile phone users say their phone saves them time, compared with 14% who say it wastes their time. Venezuelan (71%), South African (65%), Indian (64%), Vietnamese (63%), Tunisian (54%) and Colombian (50%) phone users are also more likely to say that phones save them time rather than waste it. But mobile phone users in Jordan and the Philippines generally believe they waste more time on their phones than they save, while Mexican and Lebanese phone users are roughly evenly divided in their assessments.

Mobile phone users are even more divided when assessing their reliance or lack thereof on their mobile device. In six countries – Mexico, Colombia, India, the Philippines, Venezuela and Vietnam – around half or more see their phone as something they don’t always need. But in five others – Jordan, Lebanon, South Africa, Tunisia and Kenya – users are more inclined to say they couldn’t live without it.

In some instances, people’s perceptions of the necessity of their mobile device is not linked to their assessments of its utility in other aspects of their life. For instance, a majority of Venezuelans say their phone is something that frees them and helps them save time – but just 29% say they couldn’t live without it. Conversely, a majority of Jordanians say they couldn’t live without their phone – even as they are more likely to describe it as a time waster rather than a time saver.

Consistently, smartphone users tend to be somewhat more critical of their device than basic or feature phone users in their country. For example, in every country smartphone users are more likely than basic or feature phone users to say their phone makes them waste time. And in all countries except Lebanon, smartphone users are more likely to say their phone ties them down rather than frees them.

There are also prominent and consistent differences by age. In every country surveyed, mobile phone users ages 50 and older are significantly more likely than users ages 18 to 29 to believe their phone helps them save time. The age gap is particularly notable in Vietnam, Tunisia and Colombia, where the shares of older adults who see their phone as a time saver surpass those of younger adults by at least 27 percentage points. And, while it is true that younger adults use smartphones and social media at higher rates than older adults, in every country but India these age differences persist even when accounting for age-related differences in usage.

Users largely agree mobile phones help them maintain long-distance communication, stay informed about important issues

When asked about a variety of ways in which mobile phones might affect their day-to-day lives, users across the surveyed countries generally agree that mobile phones have mostly helped them keep in touch with people who live far away and obtain information about important issues. But there is less consensus when it comes to mobile phones’ impact on people’s ability to earn a living, concentrate and get things done, or communicate face-to-face.

In general terms, communication is much more efficient. You are more interconnected, [whether] with your relatives or with world affairs. MAN, 26, MEXICO

Large majorities say their phones have mostly helped them stay in touch with people who live far away. A median of 93% across the 11 countries surveyed express this view, whereas a median of just 1% say mobile phones have hurt their ability to stay in touch. Majorities also say their mobile phones have helped them obtain information and news about important issues, ranging from a low of 73% in Vietnam to a high of 88% in Kenya. And only small shares (from 1% to 6% of users) indicate that phones have hurt their ability to do this.

In all 11 countries, smartphone users are significantly more likely than basic or feature phone users to say their phone has helped them obtain news and information. The difference is particularly prominent in Lebanon, where 83% of smartphone users say the impact has been positive, compared with 26% of non-smartphone users. And in Jordan, smartphone users are much more likely than non-smartphone users to say their phone has mostly helped them obtain information (83% vs. 44%).

Less consensus over whether mobile phones help users earn a living, concentrate or communicate face-to-face

Across the 11 countries surveyed, there is less agreement about whether mobile phones have helped people earn a living. Majorities of users in nine countries say their phone has had a positive impact on their livelihood – ranging from 55% in Tunisia to 81% in Kenya – while Jordanians and Lebanese most commonly say that mobile phones have not had much impact either way on their ability to make a living. Still, few people see mobile phones having a negative effect. Even in Jordan and Lebanon, nearly four-in-ten say the impact has been favorable.

There is less consensus among mobile phone users that their devices have helped them to concentrate and get things done. Majorities in eight out of 11 countries say mobile phones have mostly helped them concentrate and get things done. But notable shares in the Philippines (30%), Lebanon (18%) and India (16%) say mobile phones negatively affect their concentration.

In some instances, these attitudes are related to the type of device users carry – although this relationship varies by country. Smartphone users in five out of 11 countries – Lebanon, India, Jordan, Colombia and Venezuela – are more likely than other phone users to say their phone helps them concentrate and get things done, while there are no differences based on smartphone usage in the other six countries surveyed. This pattern is particularly salient in Lebanon, Jordan and India, where smartphone users and non-smartphone users differ by at least 10 percentage points.

These findings echo the concerns raised by some focus group participants (see Appendix A for more information on how the groups were conducted). Some respondents noted how mobile phones bring distractions and shorten their attention spans, leading people to commit basic errors or not complete work because of the attention paid to their devices. In every group held in the Philippines, for example, at least one participant brought up that she had burned the rice she was making because of her focus on her phone.

Because I was busy texting my client, my rice got overcooked. WOMAN, 40, PHILIPPINES

Lastly, majorities of users in eight countries say their mobile phones have helped their ability to communicate face-to-face – but notable shares in many countries say that impact has been mostly negative. In particular, 35% of Lebanese phone users say mobile phones have hurt their ability to communicate face-to-face.

In focus groups, some lamented that more and more people prefer virtual communication enabled by mobile phones and other technologies to face-to-face interaction. A few participants across the four countries where focus groups were conducted also pointed out similar trends among children and young people.

People meet less because of their phones; people use telephones to express themselves to avoid face-to-face discussions. MAN, 23, TUNISIA

Because these questions center on people’s personal relationship with their device, they were only asked of those who own or regularly share a mobile phone. For those who reported not using a phone at all, a different set of questions were posed: How do mobile phones, in general, shape people’s ability to stay in touch with those far away, to obtain information, and so on? Broadly, non-users’ impressions of the impact of mobile phones tend to mirror the ways users feel about their own devices. The vast majority of non-users feel that mobile phones help people stay in touch with those who live far away, but smaller shares think they help people to concentrate and get things done or communicate face-to-face.

Majorities in most countries say mobile phone use has had a good impact on education, but fewer see positive impacts on children, health, morality

Publics in the 11 nations polled view mobile phones as having a range of positive and negative consequences when it comes to their broader impact on their country and its society. Most notably, a median of 67% – and around half or more in every country – say the increased use of mobile phones has had a good influence on education. Slightly smaller majorities say the increased use of mobile phones has had a good influence on the economy (58%) as well as on their local culture (56%).

Few in these countries say mobile phones have had a good impact on children today

My kid’s always on his phone, and every time I address him he just nods while on his phone. WOMAN, 46, MEXICO

Across all dimensions measured in the survey, publics in the 11 countries are most negative about the impact of mobile phones on children. Nowhere does a majority feel that mobile phones have had a good influence on children. And in eight countries, majorities of the population say that mobile phones have had a bad influence on children today. Residents of the three Middle East and North African (MENA) countries surveyed are especially downbeat about mobile phones in this regard: 90% of Jordanians, 86% of Lebanese and 81% of Tunisians say mobile phones have had a bad influence on children in their country.

People also focus on the negative impacts of mobile phones on physical health, morality

In addition to the impact of mobile phones on children, health and morality stand out as particular areas of concern. A median of 40% – and clear majorities in Lebanon (71%), Jordan (69%) and Tunisia (63%) – say the increasing use of mobile phones has had a bad influence on people’s physical health. Some focus group participants expressed similar sentiment by commenting that excessive screen time, phone “addiction” and lack of physical activities were potential health-related challenges.

Meanwhile, a median of 34% say mobile phones have had a positive impact on morality, similar to the share who say the impact has been negative. As was the case with children and health, Lebanese, Jordanians and Tunisians hold the most unfavorable views in this regard. Roughly a third or more in Colombia, Mexico, Kenya and South Africa also say mobile phones negatively affect people’s morality.

Phones also give us much more room to conceal things. MAN, 42, MEXICO

As noted above, publics in Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia stand out in their overall negativity toward mobile phones on these aspects of society. But other countries are conspicuous for having relatively positive attitudes in this regard. Kenyans, in particular, offer especially upbeat assessments of mobile phones. Half or more Kenyans feel that mobile phones have had a positive impact on each of these aspects of society, with the exception of children today (just 28% of Kenyans say mobile phones have been good for children). South Africans and Filipinos are also relatively positive about most areas surveyed.

In most countries, there are no differences between smartphone users and non-users – nor between social media users and non-users – when it comes to people’s views about the impact of increasing mobile phone use on children. But on other questions there is more variation between users and non-users. For instance, in six out of 11 countries larger shares of social media users than non-users say the increasing use of mobile phones has had a good influence on their nation’s politics. This includes all three MENA countries in the survey. Conversely, in eight of these 11 countries larger shares of social media users than non-users say mobile phones have had a bad influence on family cohesion.

Concern is widespread about the risk that mobile phones might expose children to immoral or harmful content

Despite the perceived benefits of increased mobile adoption in areas such as education, publics express concern about an array of potential downsides of mobile phone use. The survey asked about six possible risks from mobile phone use, and respondents in every country are most concerned about children being exposed to immoral or harmful content. A median of 79% – including a majority in each country surveyed – feel people should be very concerned about this.

Meanwhile, the prospect of users losing their ability to communicate face-to-face is the item of least concern in each country. In only two countries (South Africa and Colombia) are a majority of adults very concerned about declining face-to-face communication skills as a result of mobile phone usage.

Among these 11 countries, Colombians rank in the top two most-concerned about all of these issues. Other countries that rank in the top two most-concerned on particular issues include: Mexico (identity theft and online harassment); Jordan (phone addiction and impacts on children); South Africa (exposure to false information and losing the ability to talk face-to-face); and Tunisia (phone addiction).

Beyond these country-specific differences, concerns about mobile phone use exhibit few consistent or substantial differences relating to gender, age, phone type or social media usage. Notably, concerns about children are widespread across multiple groups. In most instances, men and women, older and younger adults, and social media users and non-users express similar levels of concern about the impact of inappropriate online content on children.

Additionally, men and women in most of these countries are similarly concerned about harassment and bullying – a noteworthy contrast to the gender-related differences often seen in surveys of online harassment among Americans. For example, a 2017 Pew Research Center survey found that 70% of women in the U.S. said online harassment was a “major problem,” compared with 54% of men.

It is relatively common for mobile phone users to limit the amount of time they – as well as their children – spend on their phones

“Sometimes I try to use [my phone] less, but it only lasts for two or three days and then I come back to the daily rhythm. WOMAN, 21, TUNISIA

Amid a widespread debate over the impact of various types of screens on children and adults alike, majorities of mobile phone users in five of these 11 countries say they have ever tried to limit the time they themselves spend on their phone. This behavior is especially common in the Philippines and Mexico, but somewhat less prevalent among mobile phone owners in Jordan, Lebanon, Venezuela and Vietnam.

In all 11 countries surveyed, smartphone users are more likely than non-smartphone users to say they try to limit the time they spend on their mobile phone. These differences are especially prominent in Vietnam (where 46% of smartphone users and 24% of non-smartphone users have done this) and Colombia (66% vs. 45%). And in 10 of these countries, larger shares of mobile phone users who also use social media say they have tried to limit their phone use relative to those who do not use social media.

People’s efforts to limit screen time also extend to children. Among parents whose child has access to a mobile phone, about half or more in seven of these countries say they ever set limits on how much time their child can spend on their phone. 10

As was true of limiting their own screen time, parents’ efforts to limit the time their child spends on his or her phone also differ by the type of phone they themselves own. 11 Smartphone-owning parents whose child also uses a mobile phone are more likely than parents with more basic phones to say they have tried to limit their child’s screen time in nine of these 11 countries. Indeed, this gap reaches double digits in nine of these 11 countries – and is as high as 22 points in Vietnam and Jordan.

Parents’ efforts to limit their child’s mobile phone use are also related to their concerns about the negative impacts of mobile phone use (such as online harassment or children being exposed to immoral content). In nearly every country surveyed, parents who say they are very concerned about at least five of the six issues tested are more likely to try to limit their child’s mobile phone use relative to those who are very concerned about two or fewer of these issues. The only exception to this trend is Jordan, where similar shares of highly concerned and less-concerned parents say they try to limit their child’s mobile phone use.

“You should be the one limiting your child. It’s up to you to make ways to be able to limit the problems that you encounter. That’s why even if my child is very interested with gadgets, he is consistently in the honor rolls … I make limitations.” WOMAN, 38, PHILIPPINES

It is common for parents to monitor their child’s mobile phone use, and notable shares monitor the phone activity of their spouse or partner

In the focus group interviews conducted as part of this study, mobile phone surveillance performed by immediate family members emerged as a common theme. Some parents mentioned that mobile phones allowed them to track the whereabouts of their children and to make sure they were not exposed to harmful content. And for people in marriages or romantic relationships, mobile phone “spying” and social media “stalking” sometimes become the source of drama, jealousy and harassment.

Among parents whose child or children use a mobile phone, a median of 50% say they ever monitor what their child is looking at or doing on the screen. But some variation exists across these countries. In Jordan, Colombia and Mexico, for example, clear majorities of parents do this, compared with 37% of parents in Vietnam and 38% in India.

Parents who use a smartphone are generally more likely to say they monitor their child’s phone usage than parents who use a basic or feature phone. This trend is seen in 10 out of the 11 countries and is especially prominent in Jordan and Vietnam, where smartphone users differ from other phone users by 30 percentage points each.

Parents’ likelihood of monitoring their child’s phone use also differs by their own social media presence. Parents who use social media and messaging apps in each country are more likely than parents who do not use social media platforms to say they monitor content on their child’s phone.

Monitoring of mobile phone activity also extends to marriages and romantic relationships

In all countries surveyed, it is less common to monitor a partner’s phone activity – although notable shares of those with a spouse or partner report doing so. 12 Among those whose partner or spouse uses a mobile phone, a median of 26% say they ever monitor their partner’s phone use. In the Philippines, this behavior is somewhat more common; 38% say they monitor their partner’s phone.

In most countries surveyed, younger adults are more likely to monitor their partner’s phone than older adults in their country. This trend holds even after accounting for the fact that younger adults are generally more likely than older adults to use smartphones or social media. In 10 countries, smartphone users ages 18 to 29 are more likely to say they monitor their partner’s phone activity than smartphone users ages 50 and older.

There are also notable gender differences when it comes to monitoring the phone activity of their significant other. In five of these 11 countries (Jordan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Mexico and Tunisia), larger shares of women than men say they ever monitor what their partner does on the phone. India is the only country surveyed where men are more likely than women to say they keep an eye on their partner’s phone.

When a guy commented on my post, my husband got jealous about it. WOMAN, 27, PHILIPPINES Talking from a married point of view, I think it’s brought a lot of mistrust. If my data is on at 10 in the night and someone sends something on WhatsApp, it’s always suspect. Who’s texting at 10? My husband is often suspicious. WOMAN, 32, KENYA

• Throughout this this report, mobile phone users include those who say they own or share a mobile phone. ↩
• In the survey, questions about parents and children were asked of all respondents. The results reported here were recalculated to exclude those who volunteered that they do not have any children, and/or that their child or children do not have a mobile phone. ↩
• The survey did not ask what type of phone the respondent’s child or children use. ↩
• In the survey, questions about spouses and partners were asked of all respondents. The results reported here were recalculated to exclude those who volunteered that they do not have a spouse or partner, and/or that their partner does not have a mobile phone. ↩

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