The average college student uses a smartphone for about nine hours each day.
That’s longer than many of those students spend sleeping. In fact, such extended cell phone use shows that the technology could become an addiction, according to a new study. An addiction is a type of uncontrolled and unhealthy habit.
It’s well known that people can become addicted
to drugs, such as alcohol, narcotics and the
nicotine in cigarettes. What’s not so well known:
“People can be addicted to behaviors,” says James
Roberts. He’s a marketing professor at Baylor
University in Waco, Texas. Roberts also was the lead author of the new study. It appears in the August Journal of Behavioral Addictions.
Some cell phone users show the same symptoms that a drug addict might have, Roberts explains. Certain people use smartphones to lift their moods. And it may take more and more time on those phones to provide the same level of enjoyment.
[5] For such people, losing a phone or having its battery die could cause anxiety or panic. That’s withdrawal, says Roberts.
Too much phone use can interfere with normal activities or cause conflicts with family and other people, he adds. Yet despite these social costs, people may not cut back on their heavy phone use. Indeed, he says, people might be unable to stop on their own.
1. Which detail best demonstrates that phone use can be harmful?
A. "The average college student uses a smartphone for about nine hours each day." (Paragraph 1)
B. "That's longer than many of those students spend sleeping." (Paragraph 2)
C. "In fact, such extended cell phone use shows that the technology could become an addiction...." (Paragraph 2)
D. "An addiction is a type of uncontrolled and unhealthy habit." (Paragraph 2)
.......