[humanser] Separation Anxiety? Taking Cell Phones From Teens

[Mary Ann Robinson]

Separation Anxiety? Taking Cell Phones From Teens
  March 19, 2011
  What happens when you separate teenagers from their cell
phones? That's the question high school senior Michelle Abi
Hackman set out to answer -- and her research has won second
place in the Intel Science Talent Search.  Hackman, who has been
blind since age eight, explains her results to NPR's Scott Simon.
  SCOTT SIMON, host: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR
news.
  Teenagers have become as devoted to cell phones as they can be
to gum snapping or Lady Gaga.  They text, talk and leap at the
bleeble of any possible message from a friend, a parent, or Miley
Cyrus.  So we were intrigued to learn about a high school senior
named Michelle Hackman who won second place in the national
science competition.  She conducted a study to see what happens
when a teenager is deprived of his or her phone.  She joins us on
a phone from John L.  Miller Great Neck North High School on Long
Island.
  thanks very much for being with us.
  Ms.  MICHELLE ABI HACKMAN (Winner, Society for Science and the
Public, Intel Science Talent Search): Thank you so much.
  SIMON: And what'd you do -- just take cell phones out of your
friends' hands and start studying them? (Soundbite of laughter)
  Ms.  HACKMAN: Yeah, I was basing my research off of a market
research study that basically made the claim that the reason we
can't separate from our phones is that we become anxious.  And so
I wanted to see whether and if I were to do that experimentally;
if I were to take votes away from kids, if I would see that sort
of jitteriness.
  SIMON: And?
  Ms.  HACKMAN: And I actually found something a little bit
different, but I think almost as intuitive.  I found addictive
tendencies in my subjects.  They almost went through withdrawal
symptoms.  And the way that I like to explain that is that cell
phones and other sorts of technology are very inherently
stimulating.  And so when you take them away, a kid becomes
under-simulated and almost doesn't know how to entertain himself.
  SIMON: Oh.  How did you observe?
  Ms.  HACKMAN: I used the biofeedback meter.  I basically
observed levels of stimulation.  And I literally saw that
subjects who had phones taken away from them experienced
decreases in their stimulation.
  SIMON: Now, I have been told you're blind.
  Ms.  HACKMAN: Yes.
  SIMON: How does that affect your feelings for cell phones or
how you conducted the study? (Soundbite of laughter)
  Ms.  HACKMAN: I think that the one way that it really did play
in, is that I couldn't actually conduct the study myself, because
a lot of the readings on the biofeedback meter, I couldn't take
myself.  And so I actually gathered a team of other students to
administer the study for me.
  When we talk about science on a high school level, the most
important thing is independence.  So you've done the research
yourself.  But when you actually look at professional scientists,
they're coming up with experiments.  But then they spend most of
their time writing grants and then they hand the actual
experiments off to their -- pretty much their grad students and
their post-docs.
  And so scientists need to be able to work well with a team.
And I'm lucky that I've had that experience.
  SIMON: You won $75,000?
  Ms.  HACKMAN: Yes.  (Soundbite of laughter)
  SIMON: Oh, mercy.  Now you just can't take that and have a
whole big party, right?
  Ms.  HACKMAN: No, the Intel Science Talent Search sends it
straight off to college.
  SIMON: Yes.  So what are you going to do? What are your plans?
  Ms.  HACKMAN: I'm going to go to Yale in the fall to study
psychology and I'm hoping to bring the cell phone research with
me.
  SIMON: Well, Ms.  Hackman, all sorts of good luck to you.
Thanks very much.
  Ms.  HACKMAN: Thank you so much.
  SIMON: Michelle Hackman, high school senior in Long Island.
  This is NPR news.
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