A study done by Håvar Brendryen, Cand. Polit., Filip Drozd, MPhil, and Pål Kraft, PhD showed that cell phones really can help smokers to quit. They came up with a program called Happy Ending, "Happy Ending (HE) is an intense 1-year smoking cessation program delivered via the Internet and cell phone. HE consists of more than 400 contacts by email, Web pages, interactive voice response, and short message service technology. HE includes a craving helpline and a relapse prevention system, providing just-in-time therapy. All the components of the program are fully automated." I would never have thought that a program on an electronic device could help change someones life, but it can. Cell phones are making that big of an impact on our society.
Since people are so attached to their cell phones is does make sense that they would follow and obey what the cell phone tells them to do. Cell phones have become a part of us, they are something we cant live without. Since we are always with our cell phone it is hard to ignore anything popping up on it, which would prove how it really can help smokers stop smoking. "In summary, this trial extends the public health significance of digital multimedia interventions for smoking cessation. It shows that psychological support can be effectively mediated through modern distance communication technology and that automated support as a stand-alone intervention is, in fact, sufficient for a significant effect on long-term behavior change." People transfer their addiction of cigarettes onto being addicted to their cell phones. This is a very good thing, cell phones do not cause harm to people like cigarettes do.
This study was done by having 144 volunteers use the Happy ending intervention and 146 volunteers use a control booklet. When cell phones had just came out everyone would have thought that the volunteers using the booklet method would work to help them quit. However, now that cell phones are so popular and books are barely ever touched, this theory has changed. I thought this approach on trying to help smokers quit was a very interesting and unheard of technique. Although I am sure that this method will become more and more popular with helping not only smokers quit but alcoholics and drug addicts also.
