Be proactive, limit cell phone use

It’s small, it’s black and it fits in my pocket. You guessed it, my cell phone.

Think back to our high school and middle school days when we begged our parents to buy us cell phones. I’m not sure about you, but I know I did not get my first cell phone until I was in eleventh grade. Before that I would use my house phone or a friend’s cell phone, if they had one. Now, gosh, five years later, having a cell phone is part of life. It’s really rare to hear of someone not having a cell phone, kind of like not having a Facebook. It’s weird.

My youngest brother, age 11, has a cell phone and he is in seventh grade. I worked at the Big Rapids middle school last year and the fifth graders I worked with had fancier cell phones than I currently do. It’s weird to me how young children are when they are given a cell phone. I don’t really care that they have them; what I do care about is the fact cell phones may be carcinogens. This means cell phones, that our entire generation uses, may cause cancer.

This possibility blows my mind. I read an article recently where using a cell phone changes brain activity because of the cell phone radiation. You know the phone you have right in your pocket? It could possibly cause cancer.

We are so accustomed to having cell phones in our lives, none of us really care about this possibility. But, it should be a concern or at least a thought in the back of your mind. Limit your cell phone use. Not using cell phones could possibly save your life.

The study in the article discussed that cell phones “do something to the brain,” but researchers are still uncertain what it is exactly. There is talk cell phones haven’t been around long enough to prove they don’t cause cancer. People with “thinner skulls,” such as children, can absorb higher levels of radiation. So, you students with children should think twice before you offer your third grader a cell phone. And for the Ferris community as a whole, we better be a little cautious if we want to prevent generation Y from going extinct from cancer due to our cell phone usage. A few tips I think our campus should be aware of when it comes to limiting cell phone use are listed to the right.

These tips are really interesting to me. I never even knew there was such thing as a radiation-blocking case. I am also guilty of using my phone as an alarm clock on a daily basis. My phone lies right next to my bed every night. I have been using it as my alarm clock for the past two years, which is something I’m sure some students can relate to.

These tips are just something to think about and may lower the risks of getting cancer from your cell phone, if they are ever considered carcinogens. I really hope cell phones are never the reason behind such an awful disease, but if they do maybe the Ferris community will be prepared.