Cell phone use - yay or nay?

The readings assigned in class this past week for COM 435 brought something to my attention. The main reading was about the increase in the use of cell phones all over the world. This made me curious about how communication is being affected by the use of cell phones. Are we now creating more impersonal relationships? Or are our relationships actually more personal and closer than before? Do cell phones create a barrier in effective communication? Do they allow us to communicate more but with less eloquence?

I could not find any specific data on the subject, so I'm sure it's a fairly new research topic. Instead of presenting research, I am going to assemble my own hypothesis.

I believe that as cell phone usage increases, communication also increases, but with less efficiency. What this means is that people are more able to communicate (even over longer distances) and that people are more readily available to others. However, this does not necessarily mean that the efficiency of communication has increased. It is also assumed in this hypothesis that I am speaking from an American standpoint. This hypothesis would not necessarily be applied to third world countries where cell phone availability, while increasing, is still not as high as more developed countries. Back to my hypothesis: I believe that what people say to each other over mediated forms of communication is actually lacking in substance. For example, people text message daily. What they say is usually relatively unimportant and lacking of any special meaning. Also, when those two people meet face to face they might not have as much to say because they had spoken all day through text message. I have noticed this in my personal life. Many times I will talk to someone so much through text messaging that when I finally get to see them in person, neither of us know what to say. It makes for an awkward face-to-face conversation.

There is another side to this story, but I also believe that it supports my hypothesis. I have a friend who I have only seen in person twice. However, we have called, texted, and Facebooked each other so much more often. This girl considers me to be her best friend, but I do not consider her to be one of my closest friends. All of my closest friends are people that I talk to in person. The way this can go against my hypothesis is the fact that strong relationships can be formed over mediated lines of communication, but the way that this can support my hypothesis is that these relationships are usually superficial, at least in my experience. This girl thinks that we are the best of friends, but I know better. Therefore, the friendship is decently fake and worthless. I do not turn to her with serious problems. I usually just talk to her about things I know we have in common.

To wrap up, I would like to reiterate that I think communication over cell phones, as well as other mediated forms of communication, can increase the amount of communication between people but does not necessarily increase the efficiency of that communication. Superficial bonds can be created between people.