Cost of Using Mobile Phone - Essay Example

Cost of Using Mobile Phone Mobile phones are telephones capable of receiving or making telephone calls while moving around wide geographic regions. The calls are carried over radio links that connect to cellular networks provided by mobile phone operators and allow users to access public telephone networks. The geographical regions, refered to as cells, are linked by base stations. Exposure to fields of radiofrequency, or the electromagnetic waves radiated in the microwave range that mobile phones emit is over 1000 times more than the base stations emit. It follows, therefore, that the higher possibility of any adverse effects of using mobile phones is due to the handset. Owners use their phones held close to their heads, pregnant women carry them close to their abdomens and men carry them in their pockets. This raises more concerns because studies have shown that using mobile phones is associated with health risks (Katrz 19). Mobile phone technology has become an example of modern consumer culture, assuming significant cultural and symbolic meanings. Undoubtedly, mobile phones have revolutionized the way people communicate globally, but they have come with the cost of negative effects on the health of users and those around them. There is more harm caused by the use of mobile phones than the benefits gained. Mobile phones provide a quick and convenient means of communicating and the essence of using them is to be available continuously. From this perspective, a mobile phone needs to be on most of the time and so long as it remains powered on, it constantly receives and transmits radiations. However, the radiations from over six billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide have health implications that include alterations in brain activity, impaired concentration, sleep patterns, eye problems, reduced fertility, heart risks and reaction times (Hunter 309). Therefore, the implication is that the more a person uses their mobile phone, the more they are exposed to the radiations and increase the risk of tumors significantly. In order to get a signal, mobile phones were designed to broadcast radio waves, which are a kind of non-ionizing radiations that transmit and receive communicated information. It follows, therefore, that the basic mode of a mobile phone’s operation is its own undoing because of the radiations it depends on. This is because some of the radio waves that mobile phone handsets emit are absorbed by the human body, particularly tissues nearest to where users hold their phones. Then, since the handset is pressed on or placed close to the ear during usage, germs the screen collects from swiping, tapping and typing can easily be transferred to the ear. Mobile phone users can often be seen to check their phones frequently for messages, email or unanswered calls even though no notification has prompted them to do so. This habit has negatively “affected reaction times with a reduction of up to 23 percent by impairing concentration” (Sanchez-Martinez & Otero 136). That explains the high rate of accidents caused while the drivers are paying more attention to their phones, because their ability to focus is greatly reduced. The use of mobile phones while driving is a common habit, but very controversial because the distraction of drivers increases the possibility of accidents. Agreeably, the emergence of the mobile phone revolutionized the communications industry with features such as sending email and text messages being possible from handsets. However, the new means of interacting have negatively affected people’s life methods. Mobile phone usage undermines the value of traditional face to face interactions (Agger 3). Mobile phones have secured strong and sensitive places in their owners’ lives, who may even panic at the realization that they have forgotten their phones at home. It can be argued that mobile phones have made modern people more sociable, but it is actually in a negative manner especially if users get accustomed to mobile phones at a young age. This is because their social skills do not develop in the same way as those who interact physically with their societies. It is evident that when social skills are lacking, even mental health will not develop to its optimum level. Owners of mobile phones are enveloped in spheres of instant access and perpetual contact, transforming them into virtual selves. The mobile phone technology has not only invaded offices and homes, but also the psyche. The technology has found its way into the users’ heads, positioned their bodies and dictated their everyday lives (Agger 1). Traditional structures that people used to model themselves have been eroded with increased individualization changing the manner in which people interact. The way the technology is configured has given rise to new needs in perspective of usage, profoundly affecting the way owners present themselves and how they conduct themselves on social networks. Human capacity has been changed in terms of concentration and memory and in the process anxiety and duplicity have been produced as varieties of emotional experiences. In the modern world, children are brought up in environments full of mobile phone radiations. Manufacturers have included applications (apps) in the phones specifically targeting children but when the aspect of radiations is considered, the phones not only engross, sooth and amuse the children. Such environments impact negatively on their ability to extend their attention span. It is not disputable that mobile phones emit electromagnetic radiations, and since they are absorbed by human tissue, there must be a difference in children brought up in homes with heavy use of mobile phones and those without them. It is further not disputable that the developing brain tissues in younger children are more vulnerable to radiations because they can absorb more owing to the thinner skulls encasing them. According to the Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, the use of mobile phones among children will most likely result in “disruption of memory, decline of attention, diminishing learning and cognitive abilities, increased irritability” (Hunter 311). From such observations, it can be argued that children whose learning abilities are disrupted early in life do not benefit from mobile phones but will instead go through life with mental difficulties. A child’s brain will inadvertently absorb the radiations of the mobile phones they use, undergo gradual damage and with continued exposure, be placed at the risk of brain cancer. Since the tissues in the human body absorb some of the radiations from mobile phones, the fetus inside a pregnant woman will also be part of the absorbent tissues. Therefore, it means that the fetus will not be spared the injurious effects of the radiations. From this perspective, the increasing cases of children with behavioral disorders and difficulties with relationships and emotions can be attributed to their mothers’ use of mobile phones while pregnant. Evidently, the situation is then worse for users who keep their mobile phones close to them while sleeping. That is why it is recommended to switch off the mobile phone whenever possible. Apart from the brain, the radiations can also impair hearing by the damage they cause to the delicate parts of the inner ear, with heavy users aged between 18 and 25 years being a high-risk group (Hunter 310). Erratic behavior resulting from loss of concentration is not only hazardous to the persons with low attention spans, but also to others and property around them. As a result of not being to multitask as successfully as they believe they can, people suddenly lose concentration of one of the multiple tasks they are undertaking. Accidents have been reported where people suddenly stop in busy footpaths to respond to email or text messages, and those behind them walk into them (Hyman 1). The most evident connection of using mobile phones and accidents is seen on the roads, where drivers speak on hand-held devices and drive at the same time. While people are walking or driving, they need to look around, establish eye contact with others and accordingly modify their movement paths occasionally to avoid collisions that often result in physical injury. Essentially, moving safely on the roads and footpaths requires the cooperation of those moving along them. On the contrary, users of mobile phones are a danger to themselves and other road users because they often do not cooperate. While most of their concentration is on texting, they fail to look around, do not make eye contact with others on the roads and do not contribute to the safe and successful and passing of each other (Hyman 1). It is because of the road accidents that result from using mobile phones that it is illegal to use mobile phones while driving, with the exception of hands-free devices. Even though those speaking on their mobile phones look around, they do not exactly see and acknowledge their surroundings. Further, most of them do not walk straight, weaving along human traffic. The possibility of them walking into things, falling down holes, causing traffic accidents and tripping over objects, sometimes with serious injuries, cannot be ignored. The use of mobile phones causes attentional blindness, where people submerge in unawareness of their surroundings. People’s every day habits will most certainly become part of them. In the same way, with increased use, mobile phones gradually become part of the users’ daily lives, whether knowingly to them or not. This makes addiction one of the negative effects of the use of mobile phones. Users become so dependent on their mobile phones, with a growing inability to reduce usage because it is the first and last thing they see in the morning and evening respectively. Users, especially teenagers and young adults, are finding it increasingly difficult to delay responding to email and text messages (Hyman 1). They interrupt anything else they are doing just to answer their phones, a notion researchers have explained as emotionally being attached to their mobile phones. A mobile phone soon becomes the owner’s identity characterized by, for example, the ringtone or screensaver. That not only indicates their frequency of use of the devices, but also their association with them. The phones are always kept close their owners, who frequently think about them and do not hesitate to interrupt any activity they were doing to respond to them. Such habits have the ability to develop signs of distress among such users when they are without their phones. The negative effect of such addiction is that it interferes with the performance of other critical undertakings when users focus on the phones more than, for example, school work, jobs or social activities (Hyman 1). It is not a rare occurrence seeing them using their phones at the most inappropriate times and places such as in meetings, classrooms and at the dinner table since their social lives and interactions are tied up in their phones. Social interaction is the key motivation behind the use of mobile phones, but high frequency of usage leads to addition and affects stress levels negatively. The constant reminders, vibrating alerts and ringing of the mobile phones easily make users edgy and irritable. In conclusion, the mobile phone has specific properties that allow and encourage the owners to develop new rituals and behaviors that are not necessarily positive (Townsend 89). Not all users recognize the risks they are exposed to by electromagnetic radiations, which also means they are not taking any measures of precaution. The most vulnerable users are children, pregnant women and men who hope to have children later in life. Then, apart from the ability to re-configure the conduct of the users, mobile phones also have adverse effects on health. Generally, the negative effects of using mobile phones include loss of concentration, erratic brain activity, disrupted sleep patterns, reduction in fertility and vulnerability to heart problems. The main cause of concern is the mobile phone’s emitting radio frequencies, which are then absorbed by tissues that are close to where users hold the phones. Additionally, the ever-growing number of mobile phones means more people are getting exposed to the radio frequencies (Hunter 310). The radiations have been shown to be detrimental to both growing and unborn children. Exposure of children below the age of seven to mobile phone radiations results in behavioral disorders, emotional problems and strained relationships by the time such children attend school. Works Cited Agger, Ben. The Virtual Self: A Contemporary Sociology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Print. Hunter, H. “Subjective symptoms, sleeping problems and cognitive performance in subjects living near mobile phone base stations.” Occupational and Environmental Medicine 63.5 (2006): 307-313. Print. Hyman, Ira. Texting Zombies: The Scourge of Text Messaging in Public. . 2010. Web. Katrz, J. Perceptual contact: Mobile communication, private talk, public performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print. Pathak, Ankita, 10 Bad Effects of Cellphones on Health. 2014. Web. Sanchez-Martinez, M and Otero, A. Factors Associated with Cell Phone Use in Adolescents in the Community of Madrid. Cyberpsychology & Behavior 12.2 (2009): 131-137 Townsend, Anthony. “Life in the Real: Mobile Telephones and Urban Metabolism.” Journal of Urban Technology 7.2 (2000): 85-104. Print. Read More