By now we've all realized that it's no secret that college students are addicted to their smartphones, but a new study conducted at Baylor University has revealed how much time they really spend staring at cell phone screens each day — and the results are astounding. The study examined a poll of 164 college students and determined that female students spend ten hours a day on their phones while male students spend nearly eight. Additionally, approximately 60 percent of these same students admitted to being addicted to their cell phones. Let these numbers sink in for a second. To put it into perspective, we spend as much time on our phones as we spend getting a full night of sleep.

Most of us are guilty of excessive phone use, including myself. Additionally, I recognize that cell phones adequately suit the on-the-go lifestyle needs of college students nationwide and the benefits that the devices provide. However, cell phones have redefined the way we live at the most important character formative years of our lives.

Think of the pre-cell phone era when students would pass notes as means of communication. Now think of the 88 percent of college students who can't refrain from texting during lecture periods. The truth is that we aren't using our phones for the purpose which they were intended to serve. It's practically impossible to imagine the last time I had a meal with friends without a single one of us pulling our phones out. Nowadays, we use our phones to avoid awkward situations, avoid boring lectures and maintain our images on social media and we're paying the price for it.

Cell phone use is decaying our cognitive abilities and capability to think on our feet. Having any imaginable information at our fingertips has developed a dependence on our phones that has restricted our creative intuition. It's also shortened our attention spans to the extent that we have trouble reading anything longer than a social media posting.

Personally, I'm glad that the results of this study were brought to my attention so that I can be mindful of how much time I really spend on my phone and work towards making that time more productive.