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Annotated Bibliography

Do Smartphones contribute to depressive behavior in teens?

James Spinaris
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
March 8, 2015

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Annotated Bibliography
Lemola, Sakari, Nadine Perkinson-Gloor, Serge Brand, Julia F. Dewald-Kaufmann, and
Alexander Grob. "Adolescents Electronic Media Use at Night, Sleep Disturbance, and
Depressive Symptoms in the Smartphone Age" Journal of Youth and Adolescence (2014):
10 Sept. 2014. Web. 8 Mar. 2015.
This academic study examines the relationship between smartphone use and sleep, and
how that further relates to depressive symptoms. Citing several studies throughout the
article, the authors can neither confirm nor deny the conclusions of studies, but seem
rather to have strong indications that the studies cited are indeed correct, as they are
compared to additional research with similar conclusions. Statistics and exact information
is plentiful and liberally used to support the hypotheses of the authors. In some of this
research, primarily cause and effect relationships in regards to sleep were studied to infer
how increased use of mobile devices can lead to increased depression in modern
adolescents. For example, a large portion of the research discusses the negative
relationship between increased smartphone use and its negative relationship with the
quality and longevity of sleep, as well as its tendency to push back a bedtime as
smartphone use is almost never a planned activity and can easily take up more time than
originally intended. Since influences on sleep is such a complex area of study, the article
discusses ways of linking electronic media use with poor sleep as well. This article has
provided me with information for how trends between lack of sleep and depression are
related, and what they can be derived from. It provides great insight to the scientific
process and the methodology used to interpret answers from scientific studies.

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McWhorter, John. Txting Is Killing Language.JK!!! Ted.com. TED, Feb. 2013. Web. 10 Mar.
2015.
My final source is a TED Talk given by John McWhorter, on the subject of texting. In his
talk, he discusses how texting was initially thought to degrade language, as can be
ascertained from the title of the video. He goes on to explain that this is not so, rather that
texting and cell phone use in adolescents is actually much more complex than formerly
thought. The talk focuses in on several points that display this complexity, one of them
being the cognitive bonus offered to the brain by mastering a different aspect of the
English language. Mr. McWhorter goes on to explain that within the English language,
there are many dialects and methods of communicating, and asserts that every different
means of communication, ie. through different dialects or pragmatic particles in speech,
functions as more knowledge in the brain and requires at least a baseline knowledge of
texting conventions. This provides a contrary viewpoint, and perhaps even shows a
benefit to using such devices so frequently. I feel as though this is a legitimate source
because TED is generally very reliable with the information presented in the Talks they
produce.
Roberts, James A., Chris Pullig, and Chris Manolis. I Need My Smartphone: A
Hierarchical Model of Personality and Cell-phone Addiction Personality and Individual
Differences 79 (2015): 13-19. Sciencedirect.com.Web.
This academic study examines the relationship between a full range of personality traits
and cell phone addiction, and attempts to hierarchically model traits that could lead to

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cell phone addiction. The model used is called Mowens 3M Hierarchical Model of
Personality and mainly focuses on relevant personality traits that are related to addiction,
for the purpose of this study. Several traits are discussed with their relation to addiction,
including impulsiveness, agreeableness, extroversion, need for arousal and emotional
ability to name a few. Extroversion, for example, shows a strong correlation with those
addicted to cell phone use as it is linked to impulsiveness and a need for stimulation, and
functions as the natural craving for excitement. Research cited within the study shows a
positive correlation between extroversion and cell phone addiction, and also a correlation
between higher cell phone usage in public by people observed to have extroverted
tendencies. As for emotional instability, it is heavily related to cell phone addiction by
way of it functioning as a coping method for those who require the attention of others to
get through the day. These traits could perhaps be related to those that are known to be
related to depression, thus linking excessive cell phone use and addiction to smartphones
to depressive behavior. This is a great resource for my inquiry project as it provides a
detailed view into how certain personality traits can effect and even enable addiction in
adolescents. I have full confidence in the legitimacy of this source as it is backed up
heavily by research and was found in a renowned academic journal as well.

Robinson, David. "Psychology: Why Boredom Is Bad... and Good for You."BBC Future. BBC,
22 Dec. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
This source is an article written by the BBC that delves into the question of whether
boredom is good for you or not, and the author asserts that it is. The article details how

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boredom must have a place in the area of the human psyche, otherwise it wouldnt be
there, as noted by psychologists and professors interviewed for the purpose of the article.
The author further goes on to explain how boredom can actually be beneficial, and how a
lack thereof could be detrimental to youths as they ae brought up in a world with constant
stimulation. The main idea was that without stimulation, the mind will wander and tends
to find something to think about, thus somewhat forcing creativity into the mind of the
bored person. This holds true in testing as well, as the article discusses an experiment
done with subjects who were asked to copy phone numbers repeatedly. The result of the
test showed that subjects had boosted performance on standard tests of creativity, and
were able to find more innovative uses for everyday objects. The author and several
professors assert that without this boredom, people can be actually robbed of this creative
sense due to overstimulation, as they are not forced to think but rather consume media.
On the topic of smartphones specifically, one professor quoted states that looking for the
immediate elimination of boredom through smartphones is counter-productive to not
only our sense of creativity, but also our sense of curiosity. This is a great source as it
gives me another angle to pursue my inquiry through, as well as an interesting area of
study as a whole. The article is legitimate because it originated on the BBCs website and
also uses information from cited college professors within the post.