Research Question

Do cell phones make people think less, or do they make you think more(more access to knowledge)

Cell phones....some people cannot live there life without them, and others dont see the need to have one. I personally fall in the middle, i own a cell phone but it's not a smart phone, it makes calls and can text people thats all i need a phone for. A study like this makes me think back to about 10yrs ago. No one was texting each other or sitting behind computer screens to communicate there was more face to face interaction, and if face to face couldnt be possible, they would call each other. Fastforward to present day time, no one seems to want to call each other anymore, a majority of younger adults and kids feel more comfortable when they text someone rather then call them. Is it because when someone texts you there isnt a need for an instant response? Maybe there is something in those 3-5mins of thinking time from when you receive a text to when you actually respond that people really like. 

A recent study from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business finds that even though cell phones are generally thought to connect people with each other, they make users less socially minded. Their findings revealed that participants were less likely to volunteer for a community service when asked after a short period of using their cell phone, then those in the control group and were also less persistent in solving word problems, despite knowing their answers would result in monetary donation to charity. 

Technology is good to a certain extent, but people are relying on there mobile devices more then there own common sense and judgment. This study is important, because I worry what the next 20yrs will bring, and how people adapt to the ever growing world of technology. We live in an era of smartphones and stupid people, i cant help but feel that people who grew up without cell phones or GPS devices were better off, sure maybe it wasnt as convenient as we have it today, but they were forced to think and use common sense. There is also another saying "if you dont use it, you'll lose it" will we lose the ability to think on our own if cell phones keep doing half the thinking for us? All these are concerns of mine, which is why i would love to see if cell phones really are the culprits in the battle of dumbing down a society. 

In order to carry out such research i would need to find kids in the age group of 18-25, a few of which have never had a smart phone, and a few who have a smartphone and conduct a basic interview. Asking such questions like "How many hours a day do you spend on the phone" or "What function on your phone do you use the most". I would most likely be conducting these interviews at Kean University. Then i would find articles supporting the idea that cell phones make us think less, and then find some contrasting articles and analyze what both have said, so i would be using textual analysis as well.