By: Carter Cox
The article I read this week examined how dependence on mobile phones impacted social anxiety in adolescents. While this topic is truly fascinating, it is also quite serious as researchers are discovering just how much influence our mobile devices can have on us.
To start off, the article states that the relationship between our personal lives and our mobile phones is becoming alarmingly interconnected. Everyone knows how much convenience our mobile devices provide, but often times, the problems they create are overlooked. This article specifically studies how young demographics are impacted by mobile devices. The article frequently refers to mobile phone dependence, or one’s excessive use of their mobile device, as the root of most problems. According to the article, mobile phone dependence can result in “physical, psychological, and social impairments”. Some of these impairments include headaches, tightening of the chest, and decreased awareness in face-to-face social interactions.
The article defines social anxiety as “anxiety resulting from the prospect or presence of personal evaluation in real or imagined social situations”. According to the article, socially anxious individuals are more likely to become dependent on mobile devices. This is because socially anxious individuals have more control over their self-image online. They are also less subject to potential negative evaluation online. They can also compensate for any social disadvantages online. So, the hypothesis of the article’s study was that social anxiety positively predicts mobile phone dependence from adolescents.
The study consisted of randomly-selected middle school students in China. Over 1200 questionnaires were distributed in this study from teachers to students. Students were preliminarily asked to rate themselves on questions from three categories:
1. Problematic phone usage (i.e., “I feel lost without my phone”)
2. Clarity of self-concept (i.e., “I often have conflicting views of myself”)
3. Self-esteem (i.e., “I feel that I have many good qualities”)
As predicted, the study showed that social anxiety positively predicted adolescents’ mobile phone dependence. One of the main reasons suggested for this finding is that online communication offers a “relatively safe” environment for those who are socially anxious. The absence of face-to-face interaction significantly limits the risk factor for these individuals. For example, socially anxious people have more time to craft images or text messages when the conversations are mediated through screens. Another finding from this study was that social anxiety can reduce adolescents’ clarities of self-concept. When socially anxious individuals spend an increased amount of time on the internet, they tend to have a more ambiguous sense of their self-concept. Someone who frequently avoids face-to-face communication and other forms interpersonal communication most likely struggles with their self-identity.
The purpose of this article, and the purpose of many other articles I have studied this year, is to remind people that advancements in mobile technology provide both problems and solutions. The mass consumption of mobile devices by adolescents has introduced some serious social problems. It is important to remember that the virtual world can have consequences for what happens in reality, even if the dangers are hidden behind a screen.
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