The Christmas season is a time of peace and joy, right? Well, for many of us, this jolly time of year can also come with a heaping helping of stress. And a group of researchers from Kent University say that if you want a more peaceful holiday, you ought to set aside your jingling, buzzing cell phone and pick up an eggnog.
OK, they didn’t actually phrase it quite like that. (The eggnog part was just me trying to spread a little cinnamon and lactose-laden joy.) But those university elves do seem to think that those wireless wonders we’ve strapped to our hips or put in our purses have a tendency to really stress us out.
It all started with a study that was designed to see if cell phones had any effect on students’ grades at the university. The results of the 500-student survey showed that a high frequency of cell phone use had a tendency to not only negatively impact a student’s cumulative GPA, but it also messed with their overall outlook on life. That’s right, those mobile devices designed to keep people connected and content can actually cause a whole lot of anxiety.
How so? Well, it turns out that all that connection to social networks and friends made a lot of people feel obligated to keep in constant touch. And that can be a drag. Take a look at what one of the study subjects told researchers:
Sometimes the cell phone just makes me feel like it is a whole new world of obligation that I have because anybody can get a hold of me any time by just thinking about me. If my mom wanted to give me a call right now and just talk for a second, she could. And if I did not call her back by the end of the day, she would get worried. It creates a bit of anxiety and it is kind of annoying sometimes.
Another issue? There’s no down time.
“There is no ‘me time’ or solitude left in some of these students’ lives and I think mental health requires a bit of personal alone time to reflect, look inward, process life’s events, and just recover from daily stressors,” study researcher Andrew Lepp reported. “Also, a few of the students we interviewed reported sending texts constantly throughout the day from morning to night—that in itself might be stressful.”
That constant techy connection and sense of obligation even translated into something the researchers labeled as “phantom vibrations”—a situation where phone carriers would mistakenly sense their cells buzzing in their pocket even though there were no messages received. Tell me that doesn’t sound like an anxiety disorder waiting to happen. And these students probably weren’t even worried about the rigors of checking off Christmas shopping lists or squeezing a gasping bank account to pay for that one last gift at the time, either
Of course, now that I think about it, you may be reading this on your phone right now and I could be adding all the more to your stress. So before you start twitching, I’ll stop with all the negative downer talk and simply wish you a happy holiday. Here’s hoping you have a phantom vibration-free season filled with warm hearths and warm friends.
Oh, and eggnog, gotta have eggnog.
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