[acb-hsp] Separation Anxiety? Taking Cell Phones Away From Teens

[peter altschul]

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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reserved.