Social Affects of Cell Phone Use

I feel that the behaviors discussed in the survey are indeed valid even today. If anything, the fact that a majority of the public now owns a cell phone makes the study all the more prevalent. I personally feel that common human behavior doesn’t easily change over night and cell phones don’t appear to be going anywhere, if anything in the future we will become more dependent on our cell phones, which will only perpetuate the behaviors that were discussed in the study. Today, it seems that since we can do so much with our cell phones, our social relations would be affected more and more. In five years one can only imagine the various technological advances we would have on our cell phones where face-to-face interaction might even become obsolete. Based upon my own experiences and observation I think the study did a good job of identifying the main sociological terms. I thought it was quite interesting how Goffman described the two types of people in society: the ‘singles’ and ‘withs.’ Although I had previously not given these norms much thought, it is fact that those who are deemed as being “single” are “vulnerable to contact from others and may be judged more harshly than Withs.” Sadly, even I am guilty of some of the behavior that is connected with “singles” where there have been times where I have been alone and have acted in such a way so as to not appear like I don’t have friends or that I am unsocial. I was however, a little surprised that the study did not look at the social implications of texting. It sometimes appears that when we are out in public with someone else texting has just as much of a social affect. From personal experience I know that when I am out with either friends or with my family it is more irr

itating to them when I am constantly texting someone else and is even considered rude to be doing so. Perhaps, when the study was published, texting was not as popular as it is now and might even become a bigger issue in the future. As technology becomes more and more advanced it becomes all the more evident that with these advances come a hefty price as well. In recent years, since cell phones have become more available to students, schools now have to worry about students using their cell phones to cheat. In order to prevent cheating from occurring many of my professors have required us to turn our cell phones off during exams or to keep our cell phones at the front of the room. However, although I personally have not witnessed anyone using their cell phone to cheat, having the technology to do so seems to be enough to get educators to take the necessary steps to prevent cheating from taking place. I feel that cell phones have many benefits and these benefits will probably only grow in the years to come but we must acknowledge the social affects having this technology has on our society.