Your mobile: miracle or menace
also be a hostile enemy—if you let it, reports Glenis Lindley.
Almost every teenager wants one; most households have one (or more); they’re relatively easy to look after, although problems arise when sufficient care isn’t taken; and they can become very costly!
Actually, I’m not talking about a warm, cuddly family pet, rather, that modern-day miracle called the mobile phone.
Although more recently in dispute, it’s widely accepted that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and Gugliemo Marconi the radio system. But no individual person is credited with inventing the mobile phone; the technology has evolved and developed with computerisation and miniaturisation!
In the early 1900s, the first in-car radio phone was invented—a mobile phone of sorts. In Sweden, Lars Magnus Ericsson and his wife, Hilda, devised a primitive contraption that greatly contributed to the gestation of phone communication from vehicles. Then followed increased cellular technical development with considerable innovations. In 1973, the first call was made from a mobile Motorola phone (also called cells, handphones or handys), then a few years later an analogue cellular service developed. Things escalated from there.
rapid acceptance
Mobile phones (that is, for people to carry, albeit on their shoulder) first graced our lives in 1985. And what monsters they were, weighing around 3 kg with powers source! But within a few years size and weight reduced considerably to a manageable 750 g, then 250 g. Compared with today’s slimline, top-pocket, foldaway aerial-less versions (which are also smarter), they were still somewhat akin to a brick!
Not surprisingly, as mobiles decreased in size, becoming more practical and easier to use (that’s “user-friendly”), people readily accepted this technology, its associated protocols—and expense.
What began as a luxury or an expensive executive toy rapidly gained acceptance, until now a phone is an essential accessory, a must-have even for high school students wishing to SMS their choice of Idol or just stay in touch with friends.
But while the mobile phone is without doubt a great boon, and it’s difficult to imagine life without their convenience, there is need for caution.
With mobile-mania still in full swing, reinvented through the inclusion of in-built digital cameras, establishing the number sold over the past two decades is impossible, but analysts suggest annual sales in excess of 600 million, and possibly increasing to 1 billion in the near future.
In densely populated countries like China, Japan, UK and USA, mobile phone ownership ranges from every other person to two-in-three, while in Scandinavian countries such as Finland (home to Nokia, the largest mobile manufacturer in the world), the figure is near saturation at 90 per cent. In some countries, mobiles outnumber the number of homes!
In Australia, more than six million handsets were sold in 2003. Which is partly explained in the fact that 4000 are lost or stolen each week. It’s a booming business, with corporate and everyday family bill expenditure tallying around $11 billion annually.
where to next?
In this world where technology moves at a furious pace, what is the future?
When I bought my first mobile some 10 years ago, it was brick-sized (and weighted), cost a week’s salary, and because I was an older-generation techno-moron, had to have its functions explained to me by a young nephew (who didn’t even need to read the instructions). And although within what seemed like just months, it was attracting the nickname “Dinosaur,” I loved it’s convenience!
Now, several phones later—and reading the instruction booklet isn’t such a frustrating drama—my current phone fits comfortably and elegantly into my handbag, which itself contains a phone pocket of its own. I’ve also mastered messaging (SMS), dispensing with traditional English in favour of TXT English—C U L8R 2 NITE!
But, alas, I’m the proud owner of an (almost) extinct species once again: I can’t email, take photos or videos, play music or talk to my computer. And (sob), it hasn’t got a colour screen.
We all (mostly) live by the Ten Commandments, but I see a need developing for an eleventh to cover phone envy. I’m happy to remain somewhat behind the times, although I’m in awe of such future capabilities of phone functionality: 3G (Third Generation Cellular Phone Network), Bluetooth and Blackberry, Clamshell, MP3, Fast Talk and PTT (Push-to-talk, a local area walkie-talkie-type technology) and so on. They’re all part of everyday mobile-speak.
Wireless is becoming increasing popular and is expected to be the next broadcast medium, while the ability to watch television on mobiles phone is already a reality. Countries like Japan and South Korea, with some of the world’s most advanced technology and mobile phone markets, are well down this path.
High-profile firms like Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile have jumped on the bandwagon, entering telecommunication mania—and others (like Disney) are considering possibilities.
Mobile phones are part of our lives and here to stay, with the young generation driving much of the market. Should parents yield to their children’s demand for chic new technology, or even pass on their old technology handsets to them without considering the consequences?
phone kids
Parents face difficult decisions, as a large percentage of high school (and primary school) students now have phones.
Peer pressure among this group is considerable: “All my friends have one.” And “I’ll feel unsafe without one.” Some children are so obsessed with phones and texting that schools have had to implement bans and government regulations prevent them being taken into public exam rooms, where they can be used to cheat.
Even the Bible has something to say on the matter: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money?” (Luke 14:28). This question is readily applied to mobile phones, because most take the time only when they receive their monthly account and despair at where they will get the money to pay it. A school student caller to Melbourne ABC talkback radio admitted to paying up to half his casual earnings monthly on his phone bill.
So calculate the cost before rushing into a purchase or new contract, is sound advice. The misuse and inability to restrict making unnecessary calls quickly escalates phone bills. If you own a mobile, you should control it, not let it control you. Beware of so-called $0 cost or “free” phone. (The misleading use of the term “free” in phone-set sale advertising has been banned—unless it absolutely is—as a result of a recent ACCC ruling.) Investigate contracts or purchases for ongoing and hidden costs.
bold new world
advice to parents
Be aware. Watch for calls and text that come
direct to your children, so secret contacts and
undesirable relationships can be monitored.
Don’t give phones with unlimited usage to kids.
You’ll be horrified when the bill arrives. Prepaid
cards or caps on call costs prevent blowouts.
Remember, many teenagers (or friends who borrow
their phones) rack up astronomical bills before the
novelty wears off or parents confiscate the phone.
Phone and driving don’t mix. Remember, just as
drink-driving is an offence; so too is phone-driving.
Hands-free kit overcome this problem, but often the
problem is the distraction, especially for inexperienced
drivers. In Australia some 10,000 phone-related fines
are handed out annually. In 2003 this included one to a
cyclist while riding his bike and another to the
driver of a Melbourne city tourist horse and carriage!
As a result of the mobile phone, we now communicate more often and easily with friends, family and society in general, but it doesn’t necessarily make our world a safer, happier place.
You don’t have to be a genius to appreciate the many brilliant uses for mobile phones and even lives saved as a result of the ubiquitous mobile—expediting rescues, reporting on-the-spot news and helping locate your daughter in a crowded mall—but they do have a flip-side—high expense, radiation-related health risks (brain tumours) and terrorists employing them in bomb-trigger mechanisms.
According to Internet reports (and you can’t believe everything you read there), handguns are being disguised as mobile phones for criminal activity, like the spooks in a “Get Smart” episode. However, the technology can help the “good guys” too—tracking criminal suspects, such as car thieves, or locating some murderous terrorist on their way to blow up a train or hotel.
Some people can’t imagine life without a mobile, and emotional attachments run high. Losing a phone might be akin to the death of a loved one for some (short-term only, of course). To others, their mobile phone is an extension of themselves—their personality—with customised ring tones, novel covers, flashing lights and other gimmicks; for others they’re purely an elegant accessory device; and for those like me, a functional device way to stay in touch—but a necessity nevertheless.
They also comprise a whole new way of relating to one another, but even though common courtesy should come naturally, bad manners associated with mobile phone use are appalling. Good etiquette and responsible behaviour—like switching off during meetings, funerals and church services; avoiding loud conversations in restaurants; and making calls in traffic—is often nonexistent.
Things have gotten so bad in Mexico, reports Associated Press (AP), that some
priests, tired of mass being interrupted by ringing phones, are using counterintelligence
technology made in Israel to silence the devices.
“For a lot of [parishioners], the [mobile] phone is a necessity. But that
shouldn’t prevent them from having good manners and remembering that one
must respect sacred places,” said priest Juan José Martinez.
| This is an extract from January / February 2005
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