Mobiles Phones have rapidly spread into our daily lives in recent years. With this technology comes both positive and negative aspects. Mobile phones represent a major change in the way society functions. The ubiquity of mobile phones and the popularity of this device is an indicator of a new social order in which anyone can make their presence felt by sending messages, photos, and videos that can potentially be reached by a large number of people. Mobile phones can be a positive technological tool; yet, if used incorrectly, it can become quite a problem in today’s society. Common things that people don’t even think about, such as misinterpreting a text message, texting or playing games on their phone during a math lecture, getting frequent headaches, or even calling someone while driving, can eventually have a negative impact on one’s daily life. Here I am discussing some of the major impacts of mobile phones on society.
- Mobile Phones as an Object of Communication
Mobile phones are spreading at an astonishing pace across the world. They provide individuals with unprecedented connectivity for information and inter-personal interaction. Mobile phones have made communication easier. It is easy to send any data or mail to anyone in the world via the Internet on a mobile phone. If we generally observe the functions of mobile phones, we will find that mobile phones are doing voice calling, video calling, messaging, multimedia messaging, emailing via the Internet and can transfer any type of data. Mobile phones facilitate communication and provide more flexibility to people. Mobile phones are more successful in reaching the required person as compared to traditional phones. With mobile phones, there is no need to be located at a particular place, e.g. office or home. It is possible to contact anyone you need directly whenever you need them and use your time more efficiently. That is, mobile phones serve as a tool for social interaction.
- Mobile phones as objects of identity, self-esteem and symbols
Identity is central to new communication, as it is a common trends in the literature that new media bring fundamental changes in the way we develop our sense of self and in the role of identity in social interactions and social situations. Mobile phones have become an important supporting device in materializing personal identity. That is, mobile phones are a means of asserting one’s identity and autonomy. The possibility of maintaining intensive and informal social networks through mobile phones is the main strength for adolescents to be attached to this device. It not only provides social interaction but also provides self-realization to the individual. Therefore, mobile phones have become an identity symbol and a status symbol for exploring their potential identities and developing a personal identity. Self-identity and personality, the distinctive characteristics of adolescence, may be the major reasons that motivate adolescents to own mobile phones.
The selection of the phone, the presentation of the mascot and strap, the display and storage of the phone, the sharing of public space during calls and the gesture language created around its use all symbolize personal identity, values and the group with which the user identifies. As stated by Hurrelmann, adolescents have a strong inclination for “conspicuous consumption” by using various material objects as status symbols or as indicators of group affiliation. They make the mobile a style object with fashionable shapes, colours, ringtones and accessories that reflect the unique identity of each user. The mobile is no longer just a device; it becomes a way to display their individual taste and personality. As a result, the ownership and use of mobile phones cannot be limited to personal needs (instrumental or socio-emotional), since they are additionally motivated by such symbolic considerations.
- Mobile phones and memory storage
Mobile phones are used to collect, hold and protect two types of memory. The first is practical memory of numbers, addresses, dates and stored messages – all of which support the rational needs of everyday communication. The second is romantic memory of experiences, personal identities and special people – all of which support the emotional needs of social life. This romantic memory is supported by mascots, images of loved ones in battery compartments, stickers, custom rings handed to friends, personalised home screens and stored images and messages.
- Role-integrating functions of mobile phones
According to Georg Simmel, modern societies are characterized by individuals who combine many different roles, and individualization increases to the extent that each individual realizes his or her own specific role and the specific trajectory of his or her role changes over time. Insofar as each role demands one’s physical presence at a specific location (workplace, private apartment, church, school, etc.), reconciling different roles usually means: chronologically sequencing role participation and bearing the burden of repeated time-consuming movement. By providing the opportunity for flexible role switching without changing location, mobile phones facilitate the reconciliation of different role duties, because diachronic role changes can be replaced by (almost) synchronous role participation, and because the frictional costs associated with time-consuming locomotion activities can be avoided. Thus, women may engage in “remote motherhood” at work or “remote work” at home:
‘The mobile phone allows them to be simultaneously present in their domestic and working worlds. Women are now working “parallel shifts” rather than doing what they want to do’. This has been described as a “double shift”. Paradoxically, the mobile phone may make it easier to maintain (rather than eliminate) traditional forms of division of labour between the sexes, as husbands of successful “remote mothers” may feel more legitimate to avoid family duties. The mobile phone may also be instrumental in preserving broad, expansive roles that require that the incumbent be available at almost all times, as such extensive availability can be maintained even when individuals are highly mobile and involved in other social or private activities. Thus, mothers may use the mobile phone as an “umbilical cord” to their children, so that they can stay in contact with them throughout the day, even when they are at work or travelling.
- Mobile Phone as an Object of Leisure and Entertainment
With a mobile phone in hand we can play games, listen to music, download pictures, movies, chat with our friends, visit our favorite social networking sites like Face Book, MySpace, Twitter or Youtube. We always spend our free time playing games or watching video songs and movies etc on our cell phones. So we don’t need TV or PC for entertainment. All this is in the advanced latest phones.
- Emotion and Mobile Phone
The mobile phone is not only a means of communication, but also a means of emotional contact between people. Emotion and the mobile phone are inextricably linked through the interacting human user, but it is emotion rather than the technical interface that takes presence in the communication. The mobile phone serves as a medium of emotional activity between people who already have some kind of relationship, and especially those who are close to each other. This is because the device enables people to feel the presence of others, no matter how far away they are. Mobile phones have become almost an indispensable tool when managing close family relationships. Mobile phones make you feel close to loved ones, but then there is also the danger of feeling that you might miss an important call, or that you have to take a call or read a message when you are driving or in a public place without the opportunity to be there. Privacy.
7. Use of Mobile Phones During Elections
Candidates and their supporters preferred to use more traditional methods like face-to-face meetings and political rallies to get votes from the people. However, the mobile phone was important in coordinating the activities of candidates and their supporters as well as keeping a close watch on the activities of opposition members. Events like weddings, baptisms, burials and senior citizens meetings always draw large crowds and candidates make sure they attend. Mobile phones played a vital role in keeping track of these activities and passing on information to the concerned parties. This often involves subtle coordination as these occasions draw crowds in sporadic ways. Candidates had to be aware of when to appear to ensure maximum access to potential voters and avoid potential clashes with rivals. Since provincial and national elections were also taking place, candidates used mobile phones to maintain contact with party headquarters to arrange local visits by national politicians.
- Mobile Phones as Tools of Social Change
The growing number of people using mobile phones in all over the world has led to optimism and speculation about its impact on economic and social development. According to Adela Rodrigo mobile phones can play a role in social change, although not in the sense of creating new spaces for economic growth, but rather mobile phones can actually play a role in creating spaces for young people to engage with issues affecting their lives. This will lead to empowerment. In this regard, organizations can accelerate social change. Mobile phones are already reshaping social and economic relations and have already brought significant benefits in poor countries in terms of economic growth and individual empowerment and may even enable many poor countries in all the world to leapfrog some of the traditional stages of the development process.
- Mobile Banking and Mobile Payments
In many countries of all the world , mobile phones are used to provide mobile banking services, which may include the ability to transfer cash payments by secure SMS text message and other various types of services. Some mobile phones can make mobile payments through direct mobile billing schemes or through contactless payments if the phone and point of sale support Near Field Communication (NFC). Enabling contactless payments through NFC-equipped mobile phones requires the cooperation of manufacturers, network operators and retailers.
- Mobile phone surveillance
Mobile phones with cameras enable individuals to become active subjects in transmitting images and participating in “counter-surveillance”. Mobile phones have been discussed in relation to many new forms of control. They are claimed to be “a notorious security risk” because it is possible to trace the users’ geographical location. Therefore, by using their mobiles all total individuals “constantly participate in their own surveillance”. However, individuals may also be able to use mobiles for “counter-surveillance”. By taking photographs camera phone owners become active subjects in producing and transmitting images from both private and public areas. Furthermore, information about geographical locations may be somewhat irrelevant when distributing images because it would be more important to reveal it than to hide it.
- Mobile phones help in legal matters
Nowadays the police catch a lot of criminals with the help of mobile phones. Police can track a criminal through tracking systems to the location where his mobile phone is using GPS and checking the call records of the cell phone gives the necessary (vital) information to the defence forces about the criminals.
- Mobile Phone Tracking
All total types of mobile phones in all world are also commonly used to collect location data. When the phone is on, the geographical location of the mobile phone can be easily determined (whether it is being used or not), a technique called ‘multillation’ is used to calculate the difference in travel time of the signal from the mobile phone to each of the many mobile towers near the phone owner. The movements of all total mobile phones user in all total world can be tracked by their service provider and if desired by law enforcement agencies and their government. Both the SIM card and the handset of the mobile phone can be tracked.
- Useful in Trading
Mobile phones are more useful in trading. With the help of mobile phones, we can stay in constant touch with your employees and customers and know the necessary information and requirement regarding the growth of your business.
- Mobile Phone as Mini PC
The latest mobile phones are equipped with internet facilities and some operating systems. These types of mobile phones are equal to mini computers. So we don’t need to wait for newspapers. We can simply access the internet on your mobile phone and know about the latest news, your emails, movie shows and lots of messages, we have to download it and also share the message with our friends. By using mobile phone we have to buy tickets (railway, air, cinema etc.) and also know about the status of these tickets. By the facility of mobile phone we pay electricity city bills, property tax, water tax etc., by which we can also save time.
- Impact of Mobile Phone on Status of Women
In the responses of women, mobile phone significantly reduces the tolerance towards wife beating and husband’s control issues, and increases autonomy in women’s mobility and economic independence. Mobile phones may also help women overcome physical limitations, especially in places where they are separated from their support networks and tied to their husbands’ social circles. If women can carry mobile phones with them while traveling, husbands’ concerns about their safety may be reduced. Household ownership of mobile phones is also positively associated with women’s education. Mobile phones appear to allow women to better maintain their social networks and free their husbands from having to constantly report on their whereabouts.
- Mobile Phone Radiation and Health
During the past decade, many studies have attempted to quantify the risk factors associated with problematic mobile phone use. Mobile phones emit electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, which some believe may be harmful to human health. A large body of research, both epidemiological and experimental, exists in non-human animals and humans, most of which shows no definitive causal relationship between mobile phone exposure and harmful biological effects in humans. This is often interpreted as the balance of evidence that mobile phones cause no harm to humans, although a large number of individual studies suggest such a relationship, or are inconclusive. Although there is no significant scientific evidence, the following effects are more likely to occur with long-term mobile phone use:
- Acoustic neuroma associated with mobile phone use.
- Hearing problems due to side effects.
- Radiation may produce biological effects.
- Radiation from mobile phone base stations can cause cancer, tumours and nosebleeds.
- Higher frequency of mobile phone use at baseline was a risk factor for reporting sleep disturbances and symptoms of depression.
- Mobile Phone Addiction
As mobile phone use has increased dramatically in recent years, reports of mobile phone addiction have also increased. Some psychiatrists believe that mobile phone addiction is no different from any other type of addiction (e.g., drugs, Internet) and mobile phone addiction has become one of the most prevalent non-drug addictions. Several scholars have reported that some users are more dependent on their mobile phones than they themselves know. Wikle states that Americans are “obsessed” with having their mobile phones with them at all times. A similar pattern has been reported among the French. Park argues that these are signs of heavy dependence. Three characteristics of mobile phone addiction have been elucidated by Ruiz. The first is that people who are addicted to mobile phones keep their mobile phones on all the time. The second is that they use their mobile phones even when they have a land-line phone at home. Ultimately, they usually face financial and social difficulties due to excessive mobile phone use.
- Impact on Personal Time
The loss of valuable and irreplaceable personal time is a harmful sociological impact of the mobile phone explosion. Whether a person is reading a favorite book after work, enjoying a meal with friends, playing the guitar or relaxing during vacations, excessive use of mobile phones greatly interferes with their important personal time activities. Moreover, because mobile phones have made people always available for contact, companies can contact their employees at any time, interrupting their precious free time activities and demanding work from them.
- Impact on Education
The rapid development of mobile phones brings the latest and most advanced technology to our everyday lives. Mobile phones are destroying our emerging student community due to their unproductive use and this is a major loss to every economy. Today even teenage students have mobile phones and they do not pay attention to their work and keep themselves busy with messaging and music, even during school hours they use cell phones. The loud ring of a mobile phone can distract diligent note takers during class of many students. Seeing students checking their phones and responding to text messages can greatly affect professors during their lectures and explanations of difficult problems. Text message language and abbreviations such as “LOL” and “IDK” can make their way into the everyday conversations, writings, and e-mails of students everywhere. As mobile phone use increases, the communication skills and academic success of students around the world will begin to decline.
As mobile phones become more advanced and become more prevalent in schools, it is clear that mobile phones will have many negative consequences on the overall education world. Mostly students in whole world at present time are paying less attention to their professors and more attention to their mobile phones. Whether the phone is just ringing or the student is texting a friend, there have been proven negative consequences on students’ academic performance. Even good professors are being affected by the increased use of mobile phones during class. Professors as well as students are having difficulty concentrating and giving presentations in class due to mobile phones. As mobile phones become more advanced, it is becoming more difficult to achieve academic success in our schools.
- Clear differences between socially integrated and socially marginal individuals
Under traditional non-technological circumstances, the difference between socially integrated and socially isolated individuals is leveled by the fact that even very highly integrated individuals are “alone” during certain times: e.g. when they are on a trip or physically distant from their relatives and friends. Today, mobile phones allow these well-integrated people to display their social contacts even under such circumstances of mobility and absence: thus pitting them against socially isolated, marginalized individuals at all times and places. In other words, mobile phones exacerbate rather than reduce already existing differences in social participation and integration.
Read Also:
- What are Mobiles Phones
- 60 Good and Bad Effects Of Smartphones On Our Social Lives
- Radio Frequency Radiation and Cell Phones
- Mobile App Development
- List of 195 Mobile Phones Companies in All Over The World
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