Cell phones and stress

No other electronic devise has ever been developed and spread all over the world as fast as mobile phones. Firstly the aim of the phones was for business and professional purposes but later it became that, adolescent use mobile phones more often than business people, with text message or audio message exchanging. Today more than 1.7 billion mobile phones are being used worldwide, which means that there are being used more than fixed line phones.
Projects aim is to provide a proof about the impact the mobile phones have on people’s life and work balance, to proof whether the mobile phones are harmful for people’s health, if they affect on peoples lifestyle, their sleep especially, or make people feel more stressed, less concentrated and restless.
The research for this issue is very important for the future of most people, especially those who suffer from stress but also for the younger generation who become everyday more addicted to their phones as far as they overuse them. The producers can not be let aside because is not in their interest and further innovation if a proof exist that the newest technology is harmful for people.
The project was supported from the ministry of health service who invested a lot during this project, university of Staffordshire with the researcher Dr. David Sheffield and Dr. Gaby Badre. The project was made on October 2009 and lasted for two weeks. There were 42 volunteers who were part of this research. The organization of mobile phone service providers was helping and also responsible about this project. They provided our candidates with free mobile phones with free credit till the end of the project.
Same topic had been studied and discussed before from many authors and researchers. The British Sociological Association made research on the topic whether mobile phones make people more stressed or not. The project was leaded by three academics Professor Michael Bittman and Judith Brown of the University of New England in Australia, and Professor Judy Wajcman of the London School of Economics, who found 180 people; they filled a questionnaire and a log of their phone activity. At the end the academics came in conclusion that those who used the mobile phones most didn’t feel more pressed for time also gave them more flexibility about schedules.
Another research was made in Germany, it showed that mobile phones are harmful if we use them too much, people get nervous if they don’t have their mobile phones with them because they became already part of them. They listed ten rules how to use the mobile phone properly, without being harmed. In one of their listed rules they say that people should make their calls as shorter as possible because the biological effects depend on the duration of the call.
Using too much the mobile phones they cause stress and sleeplessness. The correlation between the stress and mobile phone is that people who use their mobile phones mostly they “cannot live” without them anymore. If they don’t use their phones for short period of time they will become stressed waiting for their phone to ring so they would use it. People who experience stress often they also have problems with their sleeping, most of them suffer from insomnia and all the time they feel tired. If the result of this research shows that my hypothesis is right then half of the problem is solved, remains only people to be careful in the duration they use their mobile phone hoping that the use of mobile phones will decrease. Group of 42 people were volunteers for this research, we divided them in two groups, and each group had 21 people at age of 17. One group used the phone 3 hours per day and the other group used the phone only for 5 short calls and 5 text messages per day. The research lasted for two weeks, from 1.10.2009 until 15.10.2009. We tested the volunteers; they kept diaries and took notes when and how long they used their phone, also how they slept, how long, if their sleep was comfortably or not.
At the end of the study, after two weeks, we came into conclusion that the teenagers who used their mobile phones mostly they had a bad dream, their sleep was comfortless and they were more stressed and tired during the day. On the other hand those who used their mobile phones just few times were more relieved and had a better sleep. The conclusion of our study is that people who use their mobile phones too much they become more stressed and sleeplessness. The study supported my hypothesis, which came out to be true that people who use mobile phones too much become more stressed and suffer from insomnia.
This topic was supported from many academics who were interested in this topic and in the result of our project. Most of them agreed with my hypothesis because they also noticed this phenomenon but a proof didn’t exist. Academics that wrote about this problem and did researches before also came to this point except one research that was made in Australia by three academics which conclude the opposite, that people who use mobile phones aren’t stressed at all; instead they feel available all the time.