Thursday, August 25, 2011

Cell Phones on the Brain

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2011/04/cell-phones-on-the-brain/

Cell Phones on the Brain. Credit Shutterstock

31 comments:

Ms. Ghazarian said...

How do you guys feel about using cell phones? Do you guys use it excessively? Explain...

Ben said...

For me, I don't see the point in kids having cell phones. When would they use it, and why? Also, the radio waves would be harmful to the brain.

Kevin said...

Personally, I have a cell phone, but I rarely use it. It is for cases where there is confusion about whether my mom of my dad is going to pick me up, or what time to pick me up. I agree that most kids excessively use it, as they excessively use all technology, but kids should be especially careful around cell phones, because of the increased brain activity. A little bit of cell phone activity is quite OK, in fact, that's what technology is for. However, I think most people, including me, abuse the power of technology, meaning using is for unnecessary reasons.

Julia said...

That is a very interesting blog idea. I do believe that adults need cell-phones. Maybe some kids even. They just shouldn't be placing it on their ears. They also should not be using a bluetooth device. Bluetooth devices are as bad for you as using a cell phone. You should have it on speaker or you should have headphones that you plug into a phone.

Lola said...

That is very interesting. I don't understand why anyone would talk on their cell phone for more than 50 minutes. Maybe on a business call but even then you could use email as that is almost as fast nowadays. I would be careful with cell phones and not using them unless it's necessary, but that might prove wrong. The scientists are saying it could be harmful, so they are not sure. Also, I wonder if the results would be the same if you tested it on the left side of the brain instead of the right. They are different...I tried researching if telephones have similar effects as cell phones, but nothing came up. Maybe that would be a good experiment for us!

Colin Picker said...

I found this very interesting. I never knew that talking on the phone for a long time would damage your brain. I think some kids in middle school or high school should have cell phones because if you don't know who will be picking you up from school, you can call a family member and ask. Personally, I have a cell phone but i hardly ever use it.

Emory said...

This article is debatable. For the experiment, they used a Samsung cell phone which could be different from other phones, but probably is not.
I personally believe that everyone should stay on the safe side by trying not to use cell phones. I actually heard of this experiment before and because I use my phone a lot, I use headphones while talking.

Joe said...

I use a cell phone sometimes, but I think there are some solutions that could work. First, you could text. Everyone says texting is harmful , but if this article is true and keeping a cell phone pressed on your ear is harmful, then texting is good because the phone is down by your torso typing. Also, as they mentioned in the article speakerphone is another great solution. Depending on the power of the phone's speaker you can hold it right next to your mouth and talk into the microphone. Some cars also have speakers built into them and you access it through bluetooth, so you can keep your phone anywhere in the car and use talk on the phone. Overall I think this is a formidable problem, however since there are so many solutions I think we shouldn't worry that much about it.

Anthony said...

I found this article interesting, although I had already read about this topic, I never knew that if you talked on the phone for more than 50 minutes that it could damage your brain. In my opinion though, I see no reason to be talking on the phone for 50 minutes. I think, a good alternative is to use headphones. Personally, I don't have a cell phone, and see no use. I think that adults need cell phones, though.

Chloe said...

I personally believe that it is OK to be talking on your cellphone for five minutes with your friend. I never go on for more than twenty minutes at a time. I do not think it could be as harmful as they say. I do not think that it submits that much radiation that it could harm you.

Amanda said...

I have a phone, but I don't use it excessively like some people do. Adults need phones because they might need to go on conference calls. They can put the phone on speaker, use headsets, or for a short call can hold it up to their ear. It increases the activity in the brain which is certainly not good.

Luca said...

I don't have a cell phone. If I need to contact someone for one reason or another, I either ask my parents if I can text on their iPhones, or use the speaker function on one of the home phones.

Will said...

I personally beleive that teenagers over-use their phones, but kids around our age normally do not. I agree with Kevin in saying that cell phones are okay if you don't use them every second of every day.

Caroline said...

I totally agree with this article. There are many ways to prevent it, and it's so easy to just turn a speakerphone on. I also agree that most people would not be talking for fifty minutes, but they could check some messages and then go on a long business call, and go on like that. You could rack up some minutes there. I don't think it's necessary for a kid to have a cell phone, but I am sure there are plenty of situations that a kid would need one. I do think adults should have cell phones but they could do it on speaker. Cell phones are still very necessary but you could cut down on your usage if you need to. We have plenty of technology that allows communication for non-urgent situations.

Esther said...

Kids do need cell phones, just not in the way adults do. Kids should only use them for emergencies, and my mom says I won't be getting a phone for a while. Adults, however, definitely need them for work and other things. Also, Julia said that you shouldn't use Bluetooth, but there are certain kinds of it that is just a speaker.

Rehaan said...

I think Joe made a great point - that we can text more, call less. But I remember reading somewhere that texting is pretty harmful too. Speakers wouldn't help that much either. This is probably true because both of them send radio waves and speaker radio waves are probably much more stronger but the distance to you and the speaker probably isn't that much. I think the solution to this type of problem will probably take a few decades to figure, in the meantime we will have to just use it less.

Alex G. said...

I found this article very interesting. I do not know why someone would ever talk on a phone for 50 minutes. I think they do have lots of good evidence that proves their point. I think you should be able to talk on cell phones, just in a reasonable amount of time. But to be safe maybe, you can use headphones or speaker phone.

Sofia said...

I think that it is alright to be using your cell phones, but not for such a long time. I also believe that most people wouldn't talk on the phone for fifty minutes or more because my family, my mom, my brother, my dad, and I don't speak on the phone that long. It is also bad that the energy from the radiation can be very bad for your brain.

Ethan said...

First of all, I don't think that anyone would be on a phone for 50 minutes because most people have emails, and that would be a lot quicker than talking on and on and on. Personally, I've never been on a cell phone for more than 2 minutes. Second, these tests might be wrong, because people normally have a dominant brain, which is usually used more than the non-dominant brain. Also, I don't think that putting the cell phone on speaker would that much better because it is still close enough for the radiation to reach our brain.

Nick said...

How does the radiation harm you? Does it kill you over time or in a short amount of time? Does it give you Cancer or some-other deathly disease? Will it give your children autism or make him paralyzed in a place? If I am told that cell phones will harm me, I would want to know how it harms me.

Cami said...

I have a phone, but I don't use it as much as some people do or for that much time at all. I think that being able to use a phone is very important to some adults because they have to take conference calls, email their co-workers, and text their friends about adult stuff. I think people should only be on a phone pressed against their ear for, at most fifteen or twenty minutes. If they know it's going to be longer then that, I think people should just start with speakerphone and end with speakerphone. Also, it could just be that Samsungs give radiation but nothing else, but I highly doubt that.

Aaron Willard said...

I think that it's really interesting that cellphones have a possibility to hurt your brain. If you think about how many people have cellphones in this city, then state, then country, then continent, then the world it would make you realize what a huge crisis this would be if everyone that has one got a brain disease.

Edie Graber said...

Whenever I use a cellphone, whether it's my parents', my friends', or my home phone, I usually put it against my ear. Now I feel like I have damaged my brain! I, personally, don't have a cellphone. I do have an iPod Touch, which I FaceTime people with, but I don't use it excessively. If I did, I think at first I would use it excessively, but slowly start not to use it so much.

Edie Graber said...

Ben, a lot of kids have cellphones because their parents are divorced or they travel a lot. Also, like Kevin, some children have emergency cellphones, or ones that they use rarely, just for situations like pickup. I have some friends that have parents that set conditions such as the kid is allowed to have a cellphone, as long as they save up however much the phone costs from their allowance. Of course, these children have allowances.

Emma said...

I think the that the article was interesting, but after reading it, I wasn't very satisfied because the article didn't talk about how the radiation is bad for the brain. I don't know if it is just something little, or something big. I think that the experiment basically didn't have a conclusion. I think that it is kind of annoying to me that they told me that holding a cell phone to my ear is bad for my brain, but they didn't say how it was bad for my brain, or how bad it was.

Ryan said...

I found this article informative, and I think that they should get the word to more people. I found the article lacking of some information. It didn't include some important details that would have helped me make better choices when using a cell phone. For example how safe a distance does the phone have to be away from your head to not trigger activity. Also, what are the lasting effects on the brain when using the cell phone to much.

Camille said...

I know that cell phones are very addicting to me and other people know and days so it's hard for me to say this. A lot of teenage girls and boys (mostly girls) spend a lot of time on their phones. They call their friends and text. I think personally that cell phones are usefull except they can defintley cause brain damage. My mom once told me that she herd on the news that cell phones can cause cancer. So now when I want to call someone I press speaker so It's not blasting in my ear. I also face time people instead. I also think cell phones have now use unless it's an emergency, than I'd use it. So what I think is that people should use email or they should just write letters and send them throught the post office, the old fashion way.

Jordan said...

Personally, I have a phone app on my iPad and Facetime, but I never have put it up against my ear. I think that is completely unecessary! I just turn up the volume on the phone and hold it 2-5 inches away from your ear. I also think it is wrong to use a cell phone for 50 minuets. Why would anybody need that?!?! I'd say that you should spend 30 minuets MAXIMUM on a cell phone. If it was a business call, I would say just email eachother. I used to use my "cell phone" excessivly, but now I rarly use it at all.

Jameson said...

I find this article very interesting. I don't have a cellphone, but I've heard of things called "wave shields" that you put on your cellphone and it protects you from the radiation.

Cooper Gower-Samples said...

Some kids think it's "cool" to have a cell phone, but eventually, 95% of the population will have a cell phone.
Also, some kids only want phones for the games. I heard of one kid who had to pay 1k in dollars because she bought so many games and apps.

Alex said...

I have heard about this before and I told my mom about it and now when she charges her phone 3 feet away from her. Now since I am getting a cell phone I am already starting to make a special charging station a 5 feet away from the bed. I also agree with Kevin when he said we abuse the power of technology.