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Joseph Nathe

Does cell phone use affect students grades and sleeping habits in a negative way?

University of Iowa

Abstract

            Cell phones are becoming more popular everyday in today’s society. While college students are working their best to be successful throughout their lives, many obstacles are faced. Learning how to properly use cell phones is becoming a prominent obstacle and this is causing many students to plummet academically. A multiple choice survey was sent out to 32 college students from a variety of schools throughout Iowa to find out what exactly should be done to help limit cell phone use and how it as negatively effected them throughout their college career. The findings of the survey showed that  most college students believe cell phones have caused a negative affect when it comes to their academics and suggests that there should be more ways to limit cell phone use during and academic setting. Future research would be able to expand off this survey as it opens a whole new door for limiting cell phone use to generate more success and production in and out of the classroom.

           

Does cell phone use affect students grades and sleeping habits in a negative way?

 “Cell phones are almost always on-hand and allow users to connect with an array of services and networks at almost any time and any place” (Lepp et. al, 2014). With cell phones becoming more popular and powerful in today’s society, it can be very easy to become distracted when using one. These cell phones have become a liability in the educational world, especially when it comes to college students (Lepp et al., 2014; Kuznekoff et al., 2012). In college most classes are lecture based, so it’s crucial that you focus your attention throughout the class and take the best notes possible. ‘‘During lecture learning, students must continuously and simultaneously listen, select important ideas, hold and manipulate lecture ideas, interpret the information, decide what to transcribe, and record notes’’ (Kiewra et al., 1991, p. 241). In a study done regarding cell phone use in the classroom, “Students who were not using their mobile phones wrote down 62% more information in their notes, took more detailed notes, were able to recall more detailed information from the lecture, and scored a full letter grade and a half higher on a multiple choice test than those students who were actively using their mobile phones” (Kuznekoff et al., 2012). With various technological advancements, such as texting and social media, it’s easy to become off task and lose focus of the content being taught. These are problems that are becoming more prominent in today’s day and age, which I believe will cause a severe drop-off in grades for many students.

Having a healthy and consistent sleep schedule is a key factor in everyone’s life. Sleep quality is affected from several factors such as lifestyle, environmental factors (cell phones), work, social life, economic situation, general health status and stress (Sahin et al., 2013). Many researchers (Sahin et al., 2013; Hershner, et al., 2014) have taken this into account to see just how important sleep can be, as well as how cell phones can affect it. In our current society, we’ve domesticated our technology (cell phones) in such a degree that we don’t even recognize how much we use it. Our cell phones have become a basic necessity, so using them constantly doesn’t seem abnormal. However, this can heavily hurt our sleeping schedule as “frequent use of cell phones around bedtime is associated with difficulties falling asleep, repeated awakenings, or waking up too early” (Hershner, et al., 2014).

There is insufficient research on cell phone use and a consistent sleep schedule when looking at how cell phone use can cause negative effects in an academic setting. Considering how tech-savvy we have become, this information could be very beneficial for college students worldwide. In an attempt to find some research myself, I created a survey and sent it to various college students across the state of Iowa. This will hopefully help me be able to shine some light on this topic.

Methods

Participants:

            The 32 participants in this study mostly consisted of college students from the University of Iowa ranging from freshman all the way up to seniors and grad students. There were also participants from other colleges in the state of Iowa such community colleges and a variety of four-year universities.

Procedures:

            The participants of this study were asked to answer a 7 question survey asking various questions surrounding the topic, “if the use of cell phones affect students in a negative way academically. In order to receive the most accurate information possible”, additionally this survey was made anonymous. The questions were placed into a google forms document, which allowed the survey to be accessible to everyone. All the questions were multiple choice and straight forward.

Data Analysis:

            Once all 32 participants finished completing the survey, their answers were gathered and placed into various charts, such as circle and bar charts, that displayed the percentages of the answers provided. This greatly benefits the study as it shows that the majority of students view cell phones as a negative that can cause a decrease to their academics. This can also become a domino effect as it can affect a student’s sleeping schedule. Evidence from the survey shows that the more time students spend on their phone ultimately causes them to get less sleep. Thus, adding another negative barrier connecting cell phone and academics.

Results

            The results of these survey questions were placed and compared in 3 different sections: average daily cell phone use vs. average amount of time spent on homework, an average nights sleep vs. a preferred nights sleep (in hours), and various negative effects cell phones can hold through lectures, homework and grades.

            Figure 1.1 adds on to the stigma of how popular cell phones are in our current society. While 34% of college students said they use their phones 1-3 hours a day, it seems that most students, 41%, find themselves using their cellular devices 4-6 hours a day. Going into larger numbers, 22% of students responded saying they use their phones 7-9 hours a day and 3% even said that they spend over 9 hours a day using their cell phone. These numbers show how cell phones are sure enough becoming a bigger factor, which will inevitably become a larger distraction in the classroom.  With the average college student spending a minimum of 4-6 hours a day on their phone, the window of time between homework and sleep becomes shortened.

            Figure 1.2 shows that the majority of college students, 63%, spend 1-3 hours daily working on some form of homework. Other students exceed this average as 28% spend 4-6 hours working on homework and 9% work on homework 7-9 hours a day. Most college students take around 15 semester hours’ worth of classes per semester. With 15 semester hours, this means you should spend around 30 hours a week working on homework. Considering 63% of college students only spend 1-3 hours a day on homework we can see that cell phones are taking up a large portion of this time as Figure 1.1 shows that most students, 41%, spend 4-6 hours a day on their phones. Less time is being dedicated to class work, which can be a prominent factor to a drop in grades.

            Figure 1.3 helps us get a inside look of a college students sleep schedule. The majority of college students, 72%, get an average nights sleep of 4-6 hours. 3% of college students get a scarce 1-3 hours of sleep while 25% get a healthy night’s sleep of 8-10 hours. 4-7 hours a sleep can seem low, but depending on how much is on your plate whether that be homework, a job, or group work, 4-7 hours can still be a nice amount of rest needed to function properly. While taking a look at 1.1, cell phones are yet again a factor when it comes to a daily night’s sleep. We see that 66% of students use their phone 4+ hours a day and 75% of students get less than 7 hours of sleep a night. This data helps prove that more time spent on phones throughout the day equals less sleep at night. Spending more time of cell phones often means that students are procrastinating which leads to less sleep.

            In Figure 1.4, college students gave input as to how much sleep they would ideally get each and every night. 75% of students said that 8-10 hours of sleep would be what they would like to get, 16% of students liked where they already were and said 4-7 and 9% of students hoped for over 10 hours of sleep a night. This shows the lack of time management that college students have as they are willing to waste many hours a day on cell phones while ultimately, they are just wasting their hours of sleep. This sadly isn’t a major concern for many people and with lack of sleep it is harder to function on all cylinders, which is a factor in worse grades.

 

            With figure 1.5, its clear that most college students use their phones in some way during their classes and doing homework. When it comes to lectures, taking notes is an essiental. Seeing that there are 59.4% of students that use their phone at some point during them shows how many students are off task and not receiving the neccesary information to be successful. This number rises even more showing that 3.1% are on their phones throughout the entire lecture. 12.5% of students say that they only use cell phones for educational purposes and 25% say they don’t use their cell phones at all. These are good ways to stay involved and receive the most information possible. Figure 1.5 also shows how cell phones are utilized while using homework. 78.1% of students will at some point use their phone while doing homework. This allows them to get off task, taking up more time than they need to and cutting into their sleeping schedule. 12.5% say they are always on their phone when doing homework which means that thay are highly unproductive when working. 9.4% say that they use their phones strictly for educational purposes.

            Figure 1.6 sees what exactly college students view cell phones as and if they believe they negatively affect their grades. 65.6% of students feel that cell phones can effect grades in a negative way while 12.5% completely agree saying that cell phones are a large factor in causing grades to drop. 18.8% don’t believe that cell phones do much to effect grades and 3.1% believe that cell phones have nothing to do when it comes with grade changes. This is interesting to come across as even though phones have become an essential in our current lives, 78% of students believe that cell phones cause a negative effect on academics. This shows that there is much work that can be done in the future knowing how willing students are to make such a critical change.

Discussion

Summary

            This study looked to further research on cellular devices and the negative impact that they can cause in an academic setting. In the survey, it was found that a majority of college students find cell phones to be heavily distracting in an academic setting, which can lead to a drop in grades and an unbalanced sleeping schedule. Overall, this helps show that further research should be taken regarding cell phone use in an academic setting. College is meant to better yourself and set yourself up for success later in life. By taking up most of the day on a cell phone, making time for school work can be more difficult, which leads to poorer work and lesser grades.         

Limitations

            This survey only consisted of 32 people, which means that the data my not exactly be 100% correct. The survey was also only 7 questions, further research could go into much further detail to find more accurate information. Additionally, this study only received answers from students attending colleges in the state of Iowa. Doing a study that combined schools around the U.S, or even all around the world, could show quite different numbers and possibly various changes that could be made. Cell phones have many great abilities and it would be amazing to see them more utilized in the classroom rather than being seen as a horrible distraction. 

Implications

            The results of this study provided implications that could be used for universities across the U.S. Colleges should look further into placing restrictions on cell phones while in class whether that be lectures or discussions. Colleges should constantly be looking for ways to improve learning conditions for their students and placing a restriction on cell phone use could lead to a large increase in the average GPA. This is a win for everyone as the students have a better chance of landing a job out of college and the college’s graduation rates increase, which means more people will be interested in the school. Even though the college should be responsible for handling this, the students can make a change as well. At the end of the day, everyone can make their own choice and should be placing themselves in the best possible position to succeed.

Future Research

            To find the most accurate information possible, I feel that the best way to further this research is to do a study consisting of any and all colleges across the United States regarding cell phone use and how it can hurt your grades. Cell phones are going to continue to evolve, so finding a way to utilize cell phones in the classroom needs to happen sooner than later. By finding more ways to use cell phones for educational purposes, homework would be done at a more productive level with a higher knowledge of understanding. Students would then be able to develop a consistent sleeping schedule which is a key factor in being successful. Cell phones are an amazing piece of technology, however they are used for more wrong reasons than right and that needs to change.

References

Hershner, S. D., & Chervin, R. D. (2014). Causes and consequences of sleepiness among college students. Nature and science of sleep, 6, 73-84. doi:10.2147/NSS.S62907

Kuznekoff, J. K., & Titsworth, S. (2012). The impact of mobile phone usage on student learning. Communication Education Journal, 62(3), 233-252. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2013.767917

Lepp, A., Barkley, J. E., Karpinski. (2014). The relationship between cell phone use, academic performance, anxiety, and satisfaction with life in college students. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 343-350. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.049

Sahin, S., Ozdemir, K., Unsal, A., & Temiz, N. (2013). Evaluation of mobile phone addiction level and sleep quality in university students. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 29(4), 913-8. doi: PMC3817775

Tindell, D. R., & Bohlander, R. W. (2011). The use and abuse of cell phones and text messaging in the classroom: a survey of college students. College Teaching Journal, 60(1), 1-9. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2011.604802

Appendix

1) How many hours a day, on average, are you on your phone?
A) 1-3
B) 4-6
C) 7-9
D) 9+

2) How many hours a day, on average, are you doing homework?

A) 1-3

B) 4-6

C) 7-9

D) 9+

3) How much sleep, on average, do you get a night?

A) 1-3

B) 4-7

C) 8-10

D) 10+

4) How much sleep would you like to get a night?

A) 1-3

B) 4-7

C) 8-10

D) 10+

5) How often are you on your phone during a lecture/discussion?
A) All the time
B) Sometimes
C) For educational purposes only
D) Never

6) Do you stay active on your phone while doing homework/studying?

A) All the time 

B) Sometimes 

C) For educational purposes only 

D) Never

7) Do you believe that your cell phone affects your academic learning in a negative way?

A) Completely affects 

B) Somewhat affects 

C) Somewhat doesn't affect 

D) Completely doesn't affect