Looking at "Personality and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Young People's Technology Use"

Like how the authors in “Personality and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Young People’s Technology Use” stated, I also agree that personality and self-esteem are “weak predictors of young people’s mobile phone and IM use.” One can argue however, that disagreeable students spend more time on calls because it is likely that these students are more vocal, social and opinionated. Disagreeable students are probably more likely to express their views and opinions with others. It is possible that having these characteristics and personality traits encourage these students to spend more time on calls because they can play a more domineering role and have a more personal conversation. On the other hand, neurotic student tend to text more because texting is probably one of the more impersonal forms of communicating. Since neurotic students tend to be emotionally unstable and have a hard time adjusting, texting provides them with a way to communicate with others without having to deal with any of the social norms that would be present if they were to hold a conversation in person or through a phone call or even through something like video chat. Sometimes it appears that when we don’t have to see the person we are talking to, we have more courage to say something or act in a way that we otherwise would not have said or done if we had to talk to the person in person. If feel this is what makes texting most appealing to students who are neurotic. The article addressed the issue that personality and self-esteem are also strong indicators of addiction tendencies. According to the article, the three indicators of addiction are: “withdrawal (negative physiological or psychological response to not engaging in the behavior), loss of control (engaging in the behavior more than intended), and salience (the activity dominating thoughts or behaviors).” Personally, I agree with this definition for addiction but I would also broaden this definition to include that someone who is addicted is bound of even devoted to that person or thing. Often times those who have an addiction because physically or even in more cases mentally dependent on that person or thing . As a result to their addiction, they are unable to stop themselves from continuing with their addiction without acquire some type of adverse effects. After reviewing the information that was presented in the study, I feel their finding were correct because personality and self-esteem are not strong factors that determine how much students use the telephone or IM. In the day and age students are becoming more technologically advanced and as a result a majority of students prefer to use forums like AIM or facebook to communicate with one another. There however, does not appear to be a distinction in who uses which type of more because of their personality or self-esteem but rather those who are more comfortable with the technology are more likely to utilize it. Facebook for example stated out as being an online networking site for college students. A few years later as the site becomes more and more available to a wider audience and as people become more familiar with it tools, we see more and more people using it. I do not agree with the articles claim that personality and self-esteem can determine if someone becomes addicted. I feel that anyone has the potential to become addicted to various types of technology but recent generation are more exposed to the possibility because they have grown up using the technology. It seems that younger generations require technology in order to keep them entertained while older generations who have grown up without these tools to not have the same need and a result I feel this would affect the results of the study where a sample of 17-24 year olds were taken.