Are cell phones impeding or enhancing society?

So, I have two weeks of class work left for my master's degree, then a practicum. Since my time is limited and I would like to begin my practicum immediately in January, I often have random thoughts about what I can potentially do. Well, this morning I was thinking about how I can incorporate my practicum at Allstate in a way that will be beneficial to my career; while serving a greater purpose for society. I then began "googling" some themes and stumbled across safe driving and cell phones. This prompted thoughts about teen driving and distractions because one of The Allstate Foundation's focus is on teen safe driving. I began thinking, how can I encompass dispute resolution into safe driving? I have not figured out the answer, but if any of my three readers have any ideas I would be glad to hear them. Anyway, this random thought fired another synapse in my brain, and I recalled a new story from the other night which mentioned a new study that stated texting is now the number one distraction for high school kids. This story got me thinking about the title in this post. There are so many great things cells phones can do, and if you have a smart phone the options are almost limitless. However, if you look at all the problems that come with cell phones as well, it becomes a cost benefit analysis. So, if research was conducted to measure the benefits versus the drawbacks or cell phones, do you think there would be more benefits than detriments? While we will likely never know the answer to this question, and cell phones are not going anywhere, I find it interesting to think that the more we advance as a society; the more we also seem to retract.