Stop Embracing A Cell Phone

Waking Up To Embrace The Day, Not A Cell Phone

Introduction

For this study, the experimenter decided the goal was to become aware of her use of her

cell phone within the first 30 minutes of waking up for the day. As soon as she get up (as long as

her son is still asleep) the first thing she does is grab the phone and scroll through Facebook or

Instagram instead of getting up and preparing for the day. She wishes to minimize her usage at

this time during the day. The experimenter tried to consciously record the time of day and

amount at a time that she was on the phone when first waking up, then record what she was

thinking when she didn’t do it or why she thought she needed to do at that time instead of getting

up and ready for the day. This was a question that the experimenter thought really needed

answering because she is always on her cell phone in the mornings. When the time comes for her

son to be up she herself is not ready and then things get pushed behind.

Literature Review

In today's society, cell phone use is at an all time high. People use their cell phones for

everything and for some it can be said that they use it too much. In a study done by A. Lepp

(2014), a survey was handed out to 379 students at a Midwestern college here in the U.S. They

were asked questions about leisure and what their understanding of it was, how often they use

their phone and what their main use for the phone was. The results concluded that the frequency

of the cell phone user did not have any affect on someone's understanding of leisure but it did

have an effect on their perception of the cell phone's role in facilitating a leisure experience. This

shows that people feel like they need to include their cell phone in their activities that they find

fun and that it would not be as fun if they didn’t.

Stop Embracing A Cell Phone

Another study done by C.S. Fischer (2014) tested a theory about technology and what it

does to us. In this study he says that we started by using cell phones for simple luxury things but

now gradually, we use them everyday and fell a sense of need for it. He says that there are two

different unintended consequences of technology use. There is one where and individual is

affected because they use the device and the other is the individual is affected because the others

around them are using a device. We have become addicted to technology to the point where we

show signs of withdrawal if our device dies or we lose signal. He also mentions that some

researchers are looking into a change in human memory because we think we can read and learn

from computers and are less likely to use neural storage in our brains. Technology has become a

social need in society. This speaks to any mother who feels they are on their phone too much

because having your children watch you use the phone all the time can affect them in many ways

that we may not even be thinking of at the time of us doing it.

Method

For this study, the experimenter decided to start out by making a table. Column 1: Date,

Column 2: Time of Waking Up:, Column 3: Time Spent on Cell Phone, Column 4: Thoughts on

Why or Why Not? Each morning these statistics would be recorded and she would go about her

day as normal. She decided that she needed to be aware of when she was using it and even when

she did not use it, what was she thinking of doing instead of picking up the phone. This would be

important to know because allowing her to look back on to her thoughts will help her really see

what she does and does not do. The study would go on for one month and results recorded every

morning between 0700 and 0800. Going into the experiment the hypothesis was that there would

be more days that she would not use the cell phone because she knew that she was doing this

study and wanted to make a good effort on not using it for the sake of the results. There were
Stop Embracing A Cell Phone

other things that needed to be done in the mornings that she could do instead and this was the

incentive for getting those things done. There were some things that skewed the results. There

were days that the experimenter did not wake up before 0800 and was late on the recordings.

There were also days her son woke up before she did so that was a given that she could not be on

her phone because she had to start his cares and get him ready for the day.

Results

During this study it became apparent that the experimenter was wrong with her

hypothesis in the sense of her not using her cell phone because she knew she had the experiment

to do. Every morning she would have to look at her phone to check the time she woke up in

order to record it. Some days when she looked at her phone she had notifications from social

media, text messages or emails that she knew or felt she had to look at. Some days there were

more than others and those were the days where she spent more time on the phone instead of

doing things to get ready for the day. It also seemed that there days where she did not have

notifications but was on her phone anyway simply because she did not want to get out of bed.

Instead of going back to sleep she would stay up on her phone until she felt she was ready or

until her son had woken up.

On the days that she had woken up and not used her phone she would get herself dressed

and style her hair, make coffee and enjoy time watching the morning news, get a shower, or get

her son's things prepared for the day. These were the days that she was conscious of her cell

phone use and did not have notifications when she awoke the distracted her. She was able to take

the time and get things done to prepare for the day. The following table displays the results over

the one month course of the study:

Stop Embracing A Cell Phone

Date Time of Waking Up Time Spent on Cell Why or Why Not?

Phone
9/11/2016 7:13 0 min Did hair
9/12/2016 7:46 5 min Notifications at time of
waking
9/13/2016 7:03 4 min Notifications at time of
waking
9/14/2016 7:00 18 min Notifications at time of
waking
9/15/2016 7:26 0 min Made coffee
9/16/2016 7:32 0 min Made coffee
9/17/2016 7:49 0 min Did hair
9/18/2016 8:05 0 min Shower
9/19/2016 7:02 12 min Notifications at time of
waking
9/20/2016 7:17 6 min Not wanting to get out
of bed
9/21/2016 7:38 3 min Not wanting to get out
of bed
9/22/2016 7:43 0 min Shower
9/23/2016 7:18 11 min Notifications at time of
waking
9/24/2016 7:28 0 min Shower
9/25/2016 7:56 4 min Notifications at time of
waking
9/26/2016 7:48 2 min Not wanting to get out
of bed
9/27/2016 7:09 16 min Notificications and no
leaving bed
9/28/2016 7:13 22 min Notificications and no
leaving bed
9/29/2016 7:57 0 min Shower
9/30/2016 8:02 0 min Got Darren's bags
ready
10/1/2016 8:04 0 min Excercised and Shower
10/2/2016 7:34 3 min Not wanting to get out
of bed
10/3/2016 7:13 8 min Notificications and no
leaving bed
10/4/2016 7:16 2 min Notifications at time of
waking
10/5/2016 7:41 0 min Excercised and Shower
10/6/2016 7:27 6 min Notifications at time of
waking
10/7/2016 7:21 4 min Notifications at time of
waking
10/8/2016 8:01 0 min Shower
Stop Embracing A Cell Phone

10/9/2016 7:16 13 min Notificications and no

leaving bed
10/10/2016 7:03 9 min Notifications at time of
waking
10/11/2016 7:12 2 min Notifications at time of
waking

Sociological Analysis
This study best showed a conflict theory approach to the relationship between culture and

technology. I think there is a major issue in the way we see technology. Like in the study done

by C.S. Fischer(2014), we feel there is a need for our cell phones and almost go through

withdrawal if we are told that we can not have it. I feel that this shows that technology dominates

and rules us and we allow it. Society, for the most part seems to work this way and there is a

demanding need for technology in our everyday lives. We have it in our homes, cars, jobs,

schools and stores we shop in. In some ways it can make certain tasks easier but we are being

changed and we do not even realize it. There are so many ads that we see when we go online,

watch television or walk into a store that convince us to buy things we don’t need or do things

that we would not normally do. There were lots of times where I was not really needing to do

anything or answer anyone I just needed to be on my phone. I feel like this also reflects culture

because our culture here in the United States had told us that this is what we need to do and that

it is okay.

In our class we learned in (Conley) chapter 5 about groups and networks. I feel that this

experiment showed that there is a definite want and almost need to feel like one belongs to a

network and to be or not to be in one truly makes a difference in the way that one thinks. I feel

like I needed to know what was going on with the peeple that I followed on social media and that

I needed to respond to those emails because people in my group needed me to. On the days that I

did not have anyone to respond to I felt like I was out of the group because I was probably the
Stop Embracing A Cell Phone

only one up that early that was not updating a status for the day or checking in on everyone even

though I just did 9 hours before when I was getting ready to go to bed. I feel like the idea that

there is a need to be in a group has taken over me and definitely showed in the results of my

experiment.

Personal Reflection/Discussion

During this study, I realized that I am on my cell phone way too much in the mornings

and waste so much time looking at a screen. Whenever I had a notification I had to check it and

felt like I could not resist. I would look at the time that I woke up and immediately opened just

about every app I have in order to check things out. It became apparent to me that I have an issue

with being able to ignore my phone. Even on the days where I did not use it I still felt myself

thinking about it so much that I had to watch television just so I could know what was going on

in the world. If there was time that I had nothing to do before my son woke up, I was obsessing

over the thought that I wanted to look at it but, I did not so that way I could record in the table

that I truly did not use it. I could not wait for my son to get up so I could do something that

would keep my mind off my phone. When he is awake I am not usually on my phone because I

am doing things with him. I almost felt like the time between him and I waking up was for me

and that I was cheating myself out of "my time". I thought that this was really the only time that I

could look at my phone with such detail and not being able to do it was going to mess up the

time I had with him. I was awakened by the fact that I could not handle this. Overall, this

experiment taught me a lot and showed me just how much technology truly does affect our

culture and society.

Stop Embracing A Cell Phone

Works Cited

Conley, D. (2013). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New
York: W.W. Norton &.

Lepp, A. (2014, November 16). Exploring the relationship between cell phone use and leisure:
An empirical analysis and implications for management. Managing Leisure, 19(6), 381-389.
doi:10.1080/13606719.2014.909998

Fischer, C. S. (2014, July/August). All Tech Is Social. Retrieved October 29, 2016.