Anyone who spends any time in public knows that there are any
number of ways a cell phone can turn a person into an asshole,
but now science has discovered yet another way that phones are
ruining us and destroying our social fabric. It turns out,
according to a study from the University of Maryland's Robert H.
Smith School of Business, that after people used their phones
for even a short period, they were less likely to engage in
"prosocial" behavior than a control group was. That means that
they were less likely to volunteer and weren't as diligent about
trying to complete a word problem even though they were aware
that their answers would provide money for charity. Jerks! And
what's worse, it turns out you don't even need to talk on your
phone—you only need to think about it. Researchers observed the
same drop in prosocial behavior after a group of study
participants was asked to draw a picture of their cell phone and
think about using it. So what's with our phone-induced
inclination to be rude to our fello