Page 8 - My FlipBook

TECHNOFERENCE

Social scientists created a name to describe the interference
of technology in people’s lives. They call this disruption
“technoference.” Brandon McDaniel, a scientist at Illinois State
University, explained that technoference is “a term that deals
with the everyday very minor sorts of intrusions, interruptions
that our technology devices may [create].” McDaniel and
his research team studied parents who had children aged
five years old or younger. They looked at 170 families. They
observed the ways cell phones and other devices disrupted
the parents’ interactions with their children. The researchers
discovered that when parents had a hard time managing
their own phone use, it impacted their relationships with
their children and was linked to misbehavior in the children.
Technoference can also affect people’s relationships with
other family members and friends. In addition, the pull of
smartphones and other devices can disrupt people’s sleep and
reduce their productivity at work.
Quoted in “Technoference?” Child Trends, January 2018.
www.childtrends.org.

Fifty-four percent of the respondents worried that they
spent too much time on their cell phones. Common Sense

Media conducted a survey of 1,141 US teens in the same

year. Forty-seven percent of those who had smartphones

said they were addicted to their phones.

Many smartphone users connect with each other

through their phones. When these people do not have
access to their phones, they may feel like they are

isolated or cut off from social connections. This makes

them anxious and uneasy. Researchers use the word
“nomophobia” to describe this feeling. The term is

shorthand for “no mobile phone phobia.” A phobia is

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