CA: Part 2: Article 1, Mobile Phone Addiction

Whilst searching for an article for my CA, I found myself constantly texting off my phone. Soon after I realised that I should look for an article to read about mobile phone addiction, as I was a fond compulsive user of a mobile phone myself.

I came across an interesting article from the following website:

http://www.mobilephonesandsafety.co.uk/mobile-addiction-real-problem.html

“Mobile phones have become such an important part of young people’s lives that an increasing number are showing signs of alarming dependency. “

It reminded me of how addicted my friends and I are to our mobile phones and how reliant we are of them. If we are not constantly texting, making a call or just playing with it, we are anxiously waiting for it for it to beep, constantly thinking about it.

Alarmingly, 1 in 6 teenagers are addicted to their mobile phones.

The article read that during a study of more than 100 students aged between 18 and 25 years old, had displayed symptoms more commonly associated with compulsive gamblers. This was found in a large percentage of them. It was found that a lot of them would also lie about how often they used their mobiles, and in some extreme cases, obsessed teens were frequently borrowing money from friends and relatives to pay their mobile bills

Certain symptoms found in people that are addicted to their mobile phones:

• Irritability
• Feelings of depression
• Lack of self-esteem
• Sleep deprivation
• Some cases of RSI from tapping obsessively through the night.

Some Psychological Effects:

• Stress

In a study given to a group of teenage students, they were banned from using their mobiles for three short days. Quite astonishingly, within these days, their blood pressure levels were lower and they suffered fewer annoyances and hassles going about their everyday lives. The stress they had put upon themselves by using their mobile phones had clearly been doing them no good.

A main reason for the power the mobile phone has over us, is that we are constantly searching to be in contact with certain individuals, such as family members or friends.

For child users, being addicted to a mobile phone proved to have a lot of problems for them. Their health and emotional well being is more pronounced for them than adults.

Here is a disturbing case that I read on the article:

“In a recent well-publicised case, two Spanish children aged 12 and 13 were admitted to a mental health centre suffering from severe dependence on their mobile phones. The pair were spending an average of six hours a day glued to their gadgets, and their schoolwork and relationships with family and friends were suffering as a result. They were even found to be guilty of deceiving relatives in a bid to secure more money for phone cards.”

The mobile phone became popular in the early noughties, and since then there have been increasing concerns about the damaging psychological impact of mobile use, particularly in relation to text message addiction amongst the young, which was seen as an ‘accident waiting to happen’.


This article makes me realise how dangerous it can become to be addicted to my mobile phone. It has made me want to lay off using it as much, and focus my attention on more important things.