Cell phones can greatly influence the behavior of young people.
Cell phones have become an ubiquitous part of American society, and young people are no exception. A 2010 Ball State University study indicated that 99.8 percent of students owned some sort of mobile phone device. Cell phone use among 18- to 22-year-olds can influence their lives in a number of ways.
Advertising Impact
While cell phones have a relatively low overall impact from a marketing standpoint, the biggest impact occurs among young people. According to "Marketing Charts" website, a 2008 survey conducted by BIGresearch indicated that only 6.9 percent of all adults said they were influenced to make a purchase by cell phone marketing videos and 6.4 percent were influenced by marketing-related texts. However, in the 18-to-24 age group, the figures rose to 14.2 percent for videos and 15.9 percent for texts.
Product Communication
Young people tend to use cell phones to communicate more frequently about products or services than older adults. The BIGresearch survey discovered that while only 29.6 percent of all adults communicated to others via cell phone about a service, product or brand, 50.5 percent of those in the 18-to-24 age bracket did so. This made cell phone communication the second leading method of transmitting this type of information, topped only by face-to-face communication.
Sleeping Habits
Cell phone use can impact the amount of sleep young people get each night. A 2008 study published by the "Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace," consisting of college students with an average age of 19, indicated that nearly half of the participants said they lost sleep during the week due to cell phone use. Thirty-four percent indicated they lost sleep one to two times per week, while 15.7 percent said they lost sleep three or more times per week.
Communication Method Preference
The "Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace" study also said the ways in which cell phone use affects how young people prefer to communicate. For instance, 47.3 percent of the respondents said they used the written word in cell phone texting to avoid speaking directly to others. In addition, 62.9 percent of the respondents said they used text messaging as their primary method of communicating with friends, compared to only 6.9 percent through face-to-face contact.
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