Essay Example on Cell Phone Addiction

Cell phones have taken the world by storm. It began with the first iPhone, in 2007 with a small 3 1/2 inch screen and only 16GB of storage. Released by Apple, this phone became the foundation for the modern smartphone that has greatly impacted how the world works. Thanks to the rapid advancements in this technology, people are now more connected than ever, but with this comes negative drawbacks. One of these drawbacks is cell phone addiction. Cell phone addiction is a major problem that mostly affects the younger generation, specifically teens, and can lead to both psychological and physical issues. This can greatly affect the future of not only the teens but the world as a whole.

Why are teens so addicted to their phones? Teens get addicted to cell phones partly because of their intrinsic value, but also it’s availability. In 2016, there was an estimated amount of 3.668 billion cell phone users in the world. This number has almost doubled within the last 5 years with 6.378 billion cell phone users as of right now, meaning that cell phones fill the pockets of 80% of the world’s population. Cell phones not only are everywhere, but they are a way for teens to get away from all of the stressors in their lives. Whether it be an upcoming presentation, or just meeting someone new, it provides an outlet for all of the pent-up stress and anger that teens tend to build up. This is a good thing for teens until they start to overuse this outlet. Teens use their phones to go on apps to do things like watch videos, playing video games, and go on social media. Every one of these is designed to keep giving constant rushes of dopamine, a hormone that regulates a person’s pleasure and desire. This causes the person to get distracted and spend more and more time on that app. Teens are the most affected by this because, in high school, stress becomes an everyday thing, almost everyone has a phone, and in order to communicate effectively for school, many use social media.

As technology, social media, and other variables advance, teens will only get more addicted to cell phones and their effects, more damaging. These effects can be split into 2 parts, psychological effects, and physical effects. To start off, some of the psychological effects of obsessive cell phone use are nomophobia, depression, anxiety, stress, and attention disorders. Nomophobia is the fear of not having a cell phone and it causes unnecessary stress and anxiety when a phone isn’t present. Depression is another effect, and it really targets teens because, in high school, everyone is comparing themselves to one another, trying to stand out so colleges would want them. As teens look at social media, all people see is how others are succeeding while they might not be. This causes depression and the teen, may start to think bad of themselves. Along with this, the constant buzzing, pings, and beeps can cause attention disorders, causing the teens to be unable to focus. Cell phone addiction also affects teens’ physical health. Looking at a screen before going to sleep, makes it harder for the brain to rest, due to the blue light coming off of the devices. In all, for teens, having depression, along with stress, anxiety, lack of rest, and no focus, really can affect their potential and hurt their future.