Since the beginning of time, man has been inventing things; demand fortechnology is sky high and what the public wants, the public gets. Nothing, however, can compare with the sudden boost of the 21stcentury’s best invention yet, the mobile phone. Communication hastaken on a new meaning, and currently you cannot take a stroll down atypical street in Europeand not see one. Mobile Phones have taken theworld by a storm and their rising popularity has impacted the planettremendously ( http://www. coursework.
info). According to the U. N, 400million mobile phones are in use globally, and 250,000 more are addedto the list each day (http://news. bbc. co.
uk/1/hi/sci/tech/470027. stm). How could one tiny communication source make such a difference? Whyare these technical handsets so significant that they are owned bymillions and millions around the world?Years and years ago, communication over short distances wasaccomplished with the help of tribal drums and smoke. Over time,civilization must have gotten tired of all those long hazyconversations, and a horse and carriage system was born to delivermessages here and there. History came a long, long way, buteventually, communication through wires was introduced. For this wecan give credit to Claude Chappe who invented the telegraph in 1792,and then Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, the first man to develop thecommunication of voices through wires.
Communication History took itsturning point, when in 1894 in Italy; a hopeful scientist GulielmoMarconi created an invention called “Wireless”. This was where hetapped out a message in Morse code, and a bell rung on the other sideof the room. From then on, scientists began to further investigate inthis concept. Soon enough in 1935, an American scientist invented thefirst FM radio. This was all scientists needed to spring into action.
Eleven years later, people were already beginning to communicate inmoving vehicles and 37 years after that, the first call on the firstCellular Phone of the history was made in the year 1983. The word’Cell’ in ‘Cell Phone’ was created because in order for the system towork, cities would need to have been divided into ‘cells’, thusincreasing the amount of frequency waves in the air so numerous peoplewould be able to speak on the phone at the same time. This concept wasfirst discovered and developed by Motorola, the first Mobile PhoneCompany in history. The success of the industry is displayed by thechief of the statistical compendia branch of the Commerce Dept. , whostates that “the cell phone industry has shown remarkable growth overthe decade, it’s doubled over the last three years alone”.
It is clear that cell phones are here to stay. From the simple plainmodel to the high-tech, picture-taking, video-recording, internetmodels, it is almost impossible not to have one in a demandinglifestyle. A couple years ago on my visit to England, I was literallyshocked to find two girls my age that had cell phones; needless tosay, in a matter of two, three years I happened to own one myself,including almost everyone I was surrounded by! The original purpose ofmobile phones is obviously being diminished. They are now weavingthemselves into the fabric of society, becoming fashion statements andnow necessities rather than luxuries. Because of the colored fascias,aerials, covers, logos and ring-tones used today to accessorize thecell phone; it’s no big surprise that children at the age of 8 aredemanding the new Ericsson PF768 from Santa, or that Nokia 8810 fortheir coming birthday.
To validate this conjecture, recently, theinternationally famous children’s animation corporation Walt Disneyhad released a new line of Mobile fascias in the market. These werecriticized due to encouraging young children to such conceptions,especially when there were so many complications involved. These days,like the car you drive, the apparel you wear, and the size of youroffice, mobile phones are symbols of power and importance. A mobile,up on the pretentious social scale, alerts people that you are busy,3310 3330 Personality Facias – Groovy chick, drama queen, shopoholic. . .
do these describe anyone you know?have personality, and a decent job. For many teenagers, a mobile phonesymbolizes freedom. This is the purpose for which great deals ofadolescents (ages 13-18) have mobile phones. Parents are much morecomfortable with liberating their kids knowing that they will be ableto contact them anywhere, anytime. The mobile phone is said to beincluded in each individual teen’s “personality kit”.
In fact, it isalmost like teens with mobiles are developing their own culture, fromtheir own abbreviated SMS language, to the way your type of phoneimplies your social status. It is interesting, as teenagers seem tohave enough of partition from adults without mobiles!It is said that all over the world, within about 10 years mobilephones are predicted to outnumber traditional landlines. In manycountries, inclusive of both rich and poor, already have thissituation proceeding. Even Africa, the poorest continent in the worldis “in on the game”. In Rwanda, cellular phones occupy over 58% of themarket, while in Cambodia, the figures are even higher! The cell phonecorporations boast up to 72% of all subscriptions.
Both Rwanda andCambodia did not have such extensive fixed lines in the first place,so it wasn’t too costly and was not a matter of refurbishing either. Cambodia, facing war has its own personal reasons as well. Apparentlyit is much easier and safer to arrange and set up cellular antennasacross the terrain swamped with land-mines. In other developingcountries that face natural disasters and such, Mobile phones aredefinitely practical. For example, Mozambique suffered intense andsudden flooding in the year 2000. In order to find rescue aids andtemporary security, they had to call relief urgently for the citizensthat were made homeless.
For the people of Gujarat, San Francisco, andEl Salvador that undergo earthquakes, cell phones are neededdesperately as well. Mobile phones do not only do that, but theyencourage a step towards the improvement of the economy in Developingcountries. It is possible that things may finally begin to take itstoll in these countries. Earlier this year I was hiking in theNgorongoro, breathing in the sweet swell of nature and trying to feelin tune with the Maasai way of “roughing it”.
I was flabbergasted tofind that when we were at the top of a mountain, the three Masaaisthat were guiding us whipped out their cell phones to see if they hadany reception! This proves that the Mobile phone concept as being anecessity has even touched the lives of Maasai in the wilderness. InEMDCs (Economically More Developed Countries), cellular phones, alongwith the Internet, are becoming the nations’ prime communicationsources. The business world revolves around these techniques to obtainwhat they want, when they want. Mobile phones are a large part of themarket as well; company’s such as Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens,etc have created several jobs for people. Because Developed countriesdo have the money, their willingness to spend on luxuriousconveniences such as this is not too surprising.
In Addition to allthe accessories and such, of course!Admittedly, Mobile Phones are an extremely costly necessity. If itweren’t, the vogue would be spreading around the world at a muchquicker rate than it already is. Setting up the cellular systems inELDCs (Economically Less Developed Countries) is pricey enough, andthen the added cost of antennas and the constant upkeep. This wouldnot be a Developing country’s primary concern when half of itscountry’s people are possibly starving. Buying a mobile phone is alsoexpensive. In addition, buying credit or having prepaid programs arehighly costly as well.
Citizens in these countries, particularly themore rurally living ones, would not be too eager to try a new gadgeteither. If, of course getting reception in these parts were possible. This is a disadvantage of cell phones; there may not always be signalwhere you want it. An aspect to think about in such countries would beculture. Certain African culture may not be as accepting as a personwho has been living in New York all their life. This particularmentality may be due to specific ideology that believes in standing bynatural resources and acquiring what God gave us.
A rising problemoccurring because of mobile phones is an increase in crime. Recentfigures have shown stolen mobiles make up for about 50% of therobberies all over London. There were 700,000 mobiles stolen last yearaccording to police records. The reason cell phones are so soughtafter by thieves is that they are easily sold in the black market fora good sum of cash.
This, of course is in developed countries, so canyou imagine how it must be in developing countries? Anotherdisadvantage of mobile phones is the number of driving accidents. Newresearch indicates that driving while on the mobile increases the riskof an accident. In Britain, at least 12 road deaths have been linkedto cell phones. The reckless driving of uneducated and amateur driversin ELDCs must cause worse results in this aspect. Medical Hazards of Mobile PhonesOne of the most recent and hazardous discoveries that scientists havemade about the cellular phone use is that it is potentially dangerousto the human being.
Complaints have been made for unexplainedheadaches, ear and eye sight problems, feelings of nausea ordizziness, a tingling sensation on the skin and a numbness or rednessto the face and neck (http://autoworx. freeyellow. com/report. html). People complained mainly of a “burning dull feeling on the side of thehead where they have been using their mobile phone”.
Apparently ittends to last several minutes after they made their call and may lastfor hours. Along with these indications, they may get feelings ofnausea, instability in their vision and sometimes other symptoms. Scientists say that mobile phones may be linked to memory loss andeven cancer due to the microwaves emitted. Although there are manytheories towards this, there is no evidence. Some scientists claimthat with one thousandth of a microwave oven, your brain cannot becooked so there is a large chance these notions could be false. Scientists have also done animal studies that have brought up argumentagainst the possibility of cancer.
However, this is a fairlycontemporary discovery, and until we can prove anything, we should notjump to conclusions. The Cellular Phone is now so intertwined into Society, that if it wereobliterated, it would result in an immense crash. People would notknow how to adapt their lifestyle into having no cell phones. In fact,the way society works has even evolved because of this tiny device. Itis quite nerve-wrecking to think that so much of the world depends onthis technical gadget.
Even though there are so many disadvantages tohaving cell phones in this world, there are clearly many morebenefits. Cancer is something that we may need to think and worryabout in the future. However, the way humanity in general has beentaught is to take things as they come; and that’s most likely whatthey’ll do. First it was the internet.
Now its mobile phones… Whatnext? What will be the next discovery to revolutionize society?Bibliography·http://www.coursework.info/e/page.cgi?page=view;link=29611;d=1;U=nkanabar;&s=f419868b613b0e7e4145801bfa3f415b· http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/470027.stm·http://www.coursework.info/e/page.cgi?page=view;link=818;d=1;U=nkanabar;&s=f419868b613b0e7e4145801bfa3f415b· http://www.hut.fi/Yksikot/YTK/julkaisu/mobile.html· http://www.telenor.no/fou/program/nomadiske/articles/05.pdf· http://socio.ch/mobile/index_mobile.htm· http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~kfoster/COST259.htm· http://autoworx.freeyellow.com/report.html
