Cell Phone Use and the Mental Health of College Students

By: Noor Sahar

Technology has come a long way since the first landline telephone. Arguably one of the greatest pocket-sized technology to have been invented is the cellular phone. Today’s cell phones go further than those of only two decades ago. Endless information is available through just a few taps on a screen. It seems as though cell-phones have seeped into every part of our lives. The latest technology seems to be encouraging individuals to spend more time connected online than in person. This fascination with technology is most prevalent in college students, for whom cell phones are a means of communication, entertainment, and school work all in one. The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project suggests that college students are the highest consumers of cell phone technology (2010). Sixty-seven percent of young adults 18 to 24 years of age own a Smart Phone compared to fifty-three percent of all adults, and seventy-seven percent of 18 to 29-year-olds use their phones to access the Internet (PEW Internet: Mobile, 2012). Several studies suggest that his high dependency on cell phones may actually be affecting college students’ health and behavior. Recent studies show that there is a correlation between cell phone use and college students’ mental health (Lepp et al.;Roberts et al.; Mei et al.; Yen et al.; Servatyari et al.).

The ever so increasing reliance on cell phones may signal an addiction to technology. According to The invisible addiction: Cell-phone activities and addiction among male and female college students, a behavior that triggers specific reward effects through biochemical processes in the body do have an addictive potential, and loss of control over the behavior is an essential element of any addiction” (Roberts et al., pg. 255). Cell phones have definitely become an addiction for many college students, as shown by the study done by Roberts et al., which found that college students spend almost nine hours on their cell phones on a daily basis (Roberts et al., pg. 263). The findings also indicated that cell phone addiction is partially driven by time spent on certain cell phone activities and that these activities are different for male and female users (Roberts et al., pg. 259). “Men see a more instrumental use for cell-phones whereas women utilize the cell-phone as a social tool” (Roberts et al., pg. 256). Roberts et al., concluded that cell phone addiction among the sample that was studied was primarily due to a desire to connect socially (Roberts et al., pg. 254).

However, this want for social connection negatively impacts college students’ mental health and their behavior offline. According to a study done by Mei et al., “alexithymia was positively correlated with mental health and mobile phone addiction” (Mei et al., pg. 1). Individuals who have alexithymia have difficulty understanding their own emotions as well as the feelings of others in interpersonal contexts, and mobile phone addiction is defined as “uncontrolled mobile phone use that leads to adverse consequences on an individual’s physical and mental health and social functioning” (Mei et al., pg. 2). Through her study, Mei et al., found that the higher an individual’s cell phone addiction, the greater the possibility of alexithymia and mental health problems (Mei et al., pg. 4).  Thus, there is a negative correlation between mental health and addiction to cell phones.

For college students, problematic cell phone use (CPU) is a leading factor of cell phone addiction. Problematic CPU has been described as an addiction-like behavior leading individuals to use the cell phone compulsively (Lepp et al., pg. 344; Yen et al., pg. 864). According to a survey conducted by Yen et al., students who exhibited one of the symptoms of problematic CPU (i.e. withdrawal symptoms without CPU) were more likely to report at least one functional impairment caused by problematic CPU (i.e. poor relationship with friends or classmates) (Yen et al., pg. 868). The same survey also found that 1,253 (12.3%) of the college students were classified having significant depression using the Center for Epidemiological Studies’ Depression Scale (Yen et al., p. 868). A study performed by Lepp et al., showed that “high frequency cell phone users tended to have lower GPA, higher anxiety, and lower Satisfaction with Life relative to their peers who used the cell phone less often” (Lepp et al., pg. 348). It seems as though the negative effects of technology have reached small towns as well, as is the case with the city of Davindareh. A study done in 2018 found that “excessive use of mobile phones is a potential risk factor for mental disorders in students, and such disorders are in turn an effective factor in decreasing students’ academic performance” (Servatyari et al., pg. 58). The results showed that 44.5% of students with severe CPA had moderate to severe depression”, and 25.2% reported feeling mildly to severely hopeless. (Servatyari et al., pg. 61).

As the range of what technology can do widens, it is necessary to continue to research the impact of cell phones on mental health. Several studies and countless surveys show that problematic CPU and cell phone addiction have negatively influenced the mental health of college students. A device meant to make life easier and more convenient is causing anxiety, depression, feelings of hopelessness, and even difficulties in communicating in person.

Works Cited

Lepp, Andrew, et al. “The relationship between cell phone use, academic performance, anxiety, and Satisfaction with Life in college students.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 31, no. 1, 2014, pp. 343-350. Science Direct. Accessed 2 Mar. 2020

Mei, Songli, et al. “The relationship between college students’ alexithymia and mobile phone addiction: Testing mediation and moderation effects.” BMC Psychiatry, vol. 18, no. 1, 2018. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine. Accessed 5Mar. 2020.

Roberts, James A., et al. “The invisible addiction: Cell-phone activities and addiction among male and female college students.” Journal of Behavioral Addictions, vol. 3, no. 4, 2014, pp. 254-265. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A459058653/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=767c6a2c. Accessed 4Mar. 2020.

Servatyari, Karo, et al. “The Relationship between Mobile Phone Addiction and Depression and  Hopelessness among Students in Divandareh city in 2018.” ACTA Scientific Medical Sciences, vol. 3, no. 10, 2019, pp. 58-64.

Yen, Cheng-Fang, et al. “Symptoms of problematic cellular phone use, functional impairment and its association with depression.” Journal of Adolescence, vol. 32, no. 4, 2014,pp.863-873. ClinicalKey. Accessed 7 Mar. 2020