Harmful Effects of The Use of Mobile Phone

In this new era of globalization, the technologies are an ever-changing aspect of this day and age. New gadgets and many new and fresh ideas are always trying to makes life’s easier than before and bring people closer together. When the cellular phone was first developed in Sweden in 1956, it almost had no conveniences about it, nor did the average person have access to it. It weighed 90 pounds, and was as inconvenient as having a landline with a 10-foot long cord. Following improvements within the second and third generations of cell phone networks and accessibility, cell phones went from becoming an item of luxury for those who could afford it, to an everyday necessity. For anyone operating in the modern world, in addition to being able to make phone calls on a cellular phone,a short message service was introduced to allow individuals to send a message to someone else’s mobile device without the necessity of making a phone call. Today, a cellular phone is a basic necessities for the today’s generations.

In contrast with instances in the past, having a cell phone of your own is more of the social norm than. not having a cell phone of your own. Cell phones are taking over on a global level not just a local level, which allows individuals to have the sense of security that wherever they go, they will be able to remain in social contact with those whom are in their social networks. Communication and the way that individuals interact with each other is a huge dynamic of sociology. The cell phone is changing the way in which all of this interaction occurs, which makes it sociologically relevant. Cell phones also make individuals available anywhere, and anytime, which changes the way that individuals are choosing to interact in social settings with other individuals. However, the overuse of cell phone has an impact on social relationships and social interactions in today’s society. The concept of having a cellular phone has changed the concept of social space and time among social relationships and interactions. It have some form of a dependency to the use and possession of a cellular phone. Following that, cellular phone brings disadvantages more than it bring advantages to today’s society. Therefore, as the Manager of Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the disadvantages of mobile phones is higher than the advantages of it which are addiction that can affect their daily life, can cause financial issues to rise up, cause a never ending interruptions and can cause an unwanted road accidents.

First and foremost, mobile phone causes addiction that can affect their daily life. Mobile phone addiction can be defined as problematic and dysfunctional use of the mobile phones. Students are mostly addicted to their mobile phones as most of the students in the world do have mobile phones and are inseparable with their mobile phones. Students also are the most affected with the addiction of mobile phones because it can affect their studies and their school grades. The excessive use of mobile phones reflects badly on the youth. They waste their time in useless conversations via chatting on cell phones. This is because majority of the students give preference to make calls at night or play with their phones before they sleep. This can cause restlessness, sleep loss and other adverse outcomes. Young people which are teenagers use short messaging service or known as SMS to be in touch with their friends and to make them feel a sense of their presence all the time. Similarly,children and teenagers seem to be desperate to be in touch with their friends.This addiction towards mobile phones use has now become an addictive public health problem and awareness about the dangers linked with extreme usage and addictive behaviors must be extended among youngsters. Smartphones users are particularly in danger for turning into enthusiastic about their devices.

Accordingly, youngsters checked their phones thirty four times on a daily basis. People may check their phones out of habit or compulsion, but habitually checking may be how to avoid interacting with individuals. Some youngsters can expertise withdrawal symptoms usually associated with misuse, like depression, restlessness, insomnia, and anxiety, when they are not with their mobile phones. Youngsters who use their cell phones to text are more likely to sleep with their phones than cell-owning teens that don’t text. The usage of mobile phones among students also getting worrisome as this act can directly cause problem in their studies. Students that are so ‘hooked-up’ or are always with their mobile phones are having less time to do their revision and study. They also spend less time doing their homework or procrastinate on doing their homeworks until to the very last minute. This can cause them to have bad grades and can decrease their performance in school. The popularity of cell phones among teenagers is tremendous. Texting is a way teens communicate via cell phone with friends “quickly and conveniently.” In fact, teens comprise the large group of drivers distracted by dialing and text messaging.Additionally, some of the educators disagree that mobile devices should be allowed in the classroom. Some concern exists about the distraction caused by the use of mobile devices. Students may spend time texting, surfing websites or chatting online with their friends, which means that they are not paying attention to the teacher. Their school performance is significantly lower for the students who are distracted by mobile devices during a lesson, indicating that there is a loss of concentration if students are doing non class-related tasks. As well as to the student doing other tasks on the mobile device, it is also possible that the instructor can be distracted by a student’s actions.

Another concern relates to test cheating. There are number of cases of students using cell phones to cheat on entrance exams in school. The technology available through cell phones allows an individual to send answers to multiple-choice questions to other test takers or send pictures of test questions to friends who send back the response. With web-browsing devices, it is possible to look up answers to questions, use dictionaries and other sources of information. Apart from that, mobile phones addiction not only affecting the children and teenagers, but also the parents. Parents that are very addicted to their mobile phone tend to use their mobile phone at home and also while they are working. When they are addicted with their mobile phones, the act of using it during their working time will decrease their job performance. The use of mobile phones during working hours can cause disruptions and decline in their productivity. The usage of mobile phones during working hours also leads to unfinished works and if this situation is prolonged, it can make a person to lose their jobs. The excessive usage of mobile phone just as an abuse or a necessity of the time. The addictive nature of cell phones has involved not onlt students, but also for the adults.

Next, mobile phones can cause financial issues to rise up. People that are addicted with their mobile phones spend a lot of time calling, texting or surfing the internet. When they spend a lot of time calling and texting their family or friends, it will cause a debt due to high mobile phone bills. The build up of the debts can make these people to live in depression and anxiety because of the never ending thoughts on how to clear up their debts. Some of the people, mainly teenagers would be tempted to subscribe to an entertainment such as music on the dialing known as ‘caller ringtone’ offered from their telco company which will cost them a lot, and lot more than they could pay. Some of them also willing to buy some purchased in applications or some stuffs for their mobile phone games and without their consent, it already piled up their debts. There are already many cases of children buying some game stuffs for their mobile phone games or premium services on the mobile phones without their parents consent and ended up causing the parents to pay for their children’s behavior. Suddenly they have got a high mobile phone bills because they thought services they were getting in term of downloads and ringtones were free. Plus, there are many of the mobile phones enthusiast would not hesitate to buy the newest brand of mobile phones that have the highest technology to boast in front of their friends. Some of them also do not bother to use the money that they don’t have to buy the newest mobile phones that are in the trend nowadays and this could cause a burn in their pockets and a high debt on their credit cards. Many of the people are almost declare bankruptcy from their hobby that mainly all around about mobile phones and gadgets. Most of the mobile phones enthusiast trying to catch up with the technology of mobile phones and that leaves them with a huge debt because mobile phones that have the highest and newest specificate on would be very expensive for those who did not earn a lot through from their salary.

In addition, mobile phones cause never ending interruptions. This could happen while they are in school, or workplace or even during dinner time. It affects the quality time with their family, job and school performance. Some people are trying to have a decent and romantic date with their loved one and yet are plagued by incessant calls and texts. This will not only affects their quality time but also will give a negative impact on their personal contact. The stereotype depicts a teenager at the dinner table, completely disinterested in family time, instead of being completely occupied with social media and mobile messenger apps. Overall youngsters were intense mobile phone users. The study found that people who had lower levels of self-esteem, tended to use the mobile phone a lot more than others. Students with lower self-esteem tend to own a desire to get self reassurance; therefore they are more likely to use their cell phones more. Technology that is a growing part of their adolescents’ lives. For example, youth may be using technology to speak with their peers more than they talk in real life, and this may widen the gap between themselves and their parents.

Although technology and media have always been involved in adolescents’ lives, they play an even bigger role today. Parents already have to address the changes in their relationship with their adolescents, as their children’s peers become a higher priority. Parents also now have to account for the role that technology plays in their adolescents’ lives . Now that technology has become so salient in adolescents’ lives, it is speculated that it could be more difficult for parents to engage in open and honest communication with their children. Parents may have to compete with their adolescents spending more time with their peers and their adolescents’ increasing technology use. The addition of technology to adolescents’ lives affects the overall family dynamic and the adolescent-parent relationship. It affects the family relationships and reduce the quality time between them.

Concern is growing that adolescents’ extensive use of electronic communication to interact with their peers may impair their relations with their parents, siblings, and other family members. As adolescents become quick and intuitive technology users and become more independent from their parents, and the parents are almost unable to control their children’s addiction towards mobile phones and it disrupts the family relationship. This also happens to be a problem at school. Mobile phones may dehumanize the dynamics of human contact. Some people may not know how to interact in real life anymore, preferring the safety and comfort of a well-timed text. A husband and wife’s relationship could be at risk too with the increasing addiction towards their mobile phones. As their partner spend too much time with their mobile phones, this could make their partner to feel left out and isolated, thus affecting their relationships. If this problem is prolonged, it could lead to a divorce between parents.

Lastly, handheld devices can cause unwanted road accidents. The use of mobile phone during driving a car can cause car accidents to happen. A normal human being can only focus and concentrate on one thing and they won’t be able to multitask while they are driving. A full focus and concentration is needed when a person is driving a car because anything could happen in the road. There are many car involved with a road accidents because of the use of mobile phones whilst they are driving. This is getting to a concern as they act of using mobile phone while driving is not only putting their life at risk but it can also put other people’s life at risk too. It is unfair to those that are following the rules, not using mobile phones while they are on the road and just trying to reach to their destination safely. When someone is using their mobile phone while they are driving, their attention is not on the road but on their phone. This is also the same situation when they are picking up their phone to make a call or answer a call, their focus would be on the engaging conversation and not on the road. This can make them to not aware to the traffic lights, or road signals and incoming cars from their sides. Furthermore, being on their phone and engage to a conversation can make their car to lose control and the car can move from the correct lane to the other complementary lane and can cause accidents. The uncontrollable car can also hit a pedestrian on the side road or a motorcycle besides them. This is because it is not advisable to use their mobile phone while they are busy driving on the road. A normal human being can only focus to one thing at one time and being on their mobile phone while driving can cause the driver to lose their focus and thus, unwanted road accidents could happen.

In a nutshell, the use of mobile phone among the youth and parents bring many disadvantages and the advantages when the mobile phone is used excessively. It affects the student’s performance in school and giving negative impacts to their studies and school grades. As loving and responsible parents, they need to monitor their children’s activities and time spent with their mobile phones. Mobile phones can bring advantages to them if it is being use with a consideration. The parents can also limit their children’s internet access to control their time spent on mobile phones. Parents can adjust their internet settings and apply limitation when the data reached the maximum. This can limit the time their children spend on mobile phones thus it will not affect their studies and performance in school. Monitoring their children’s activities with their mobile phone can also reduced the mobile phones bills so that it will not cost them too much in the end of the month. The parents can also restrict their children from purchasing any entertainment services from any telco company or for their mobile phone games to avoid getting unwanted bills from unknown services. The parents also need to tell and advice their children to not buying things of unimportant stuff through online without their consent. This can also increase their parent’s understanding towards their growing children that is so addicted to their mobile phones. As mobile phones brings a never ending interruptions and affects their family time, parents and also children need to understand that when it is time with the family, their mobile phones should be put aside. Some parents are unable to do so, even during family dinner time their phone will keep ringing from work and it could affect the quality time of their family. An overall family balance and dynamic could be affected from the excessive use of mobile phones among the family members. Plus, the use of hands-free during driving could make the driver to still get both of their hands and eyes focused on the driving without any hassle.