If you didn't already know, using a cell phone for long periods of time will turn you into a selfish person, according to a study conducted by a University of Maryland, USA. University researchers used students from some Maryland colleges for the study and came to the conclusion that after using a mobile phone they become more selfish. Students are less inclined to agree to help their peers, they don't want to participate in charitable activities and all this after just a few hours of using a mobile phone.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Although cellphones are usually considered devices that connect people, they may make users less socially minded, finds a recent study from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. The researchers found that after a short period of cellphone use the subjects were less inclined to volunteer for a community service activity when asked, compared to the control-group counterparts. The cell phone users were also less persistent in solving word problems – even though they knew their answers would translate to a monetary donation to charity.
It seems that the basis of this selfishness is the fact that users "satisfy" their need for interaction with other people by simply using a mobile phone that allows them to connect virtually with friends or even strangers. Practically, the need for socialization is realized with the help of the virtual environment and not in the real world, and those who use a mobile phone for a few hours no longer feel the need to communicate directly with their peers or to help them. Of course, we are only talking about a study, but I think there are people among you who realize that it is quite correct.
The authors cited previous research in explaining a root cause of their findings: "The cellphone directly evokes feelings of connectivity to others, thereby fulfilling the basic human need to belong." This results in reducing one's desire to connect with others or to engage in empathic and prosocial behavior. The study also distinguished its subjects from users of other social media — Facebook users — in one of the tests. The authors found that participants felt more connected to others because of their cellphones than because of their Facebook accounts, suggesting that this difference in connectedness was the underlying driver of the observed phenomenon.
