UNIT 8 Means of communication Lesson 6 The era of mobile phones

 

The mobile phone

The mobile phone has become the most important way of communication for teens and they often avoid contact with peers that don’t have mobile phones.

Blinkoff and his colleagues studied the behaviour of 144 mobile phone users between the ages of 16 and 40 from several countries and found that teenagers often saw little difference between meeting face to face and talking on the phone.

40% of young adults use their mobile phones during more than four hours a day to talk or send text messages. If they miss a call or a message, it makes them feel “deeply upset and sad”. The main difference between this kind of addiction and alcoholism or drug-addiction is that mobile-addicts can be seriously affected psychologically but, as they don’t show any physical symptoms, others don’t see their problem. In fact, addiction to mobile phones is a part of a greater group – that of addiction to new technologies.

Mobile-addicts forget about important activities (studies), drift apart from friends and close family and think about the mobile phone constantly when they do not have it with them. A huge number of teens use their mobile phones during school. The survey also revealed that on average, teens spend almost as much time on their mobile phones as they spend doing physical activity.

 

Answer the questions:

– Do you have a mobile phone? What can your mobile do?

– Do you prefer meeting people or talking to them on the phone?

– How much time a day do you use your mobile phone?

– What do you mostly use your mobile for: talking, texting, playing video games, other?

– Do you use your mobile during school?

– Do you think you have an addiction to mobile phones?

– Do you use your mobile at night?

– How much time do you spend a day doing physical activity?

– If you had to choose between the mobile phone and the TV, what would you choose?

– If you had to choose between the mobile phone and the Internet, what would you choose?