MOBILE
PHONE MANIA | | Message received - Over a billion are every month |
It
was predicted around 4 million people would own a mobile phone by
now. The
figure is actually around 40 million in the UK alone! About
a billion text messages are sent every month - mostly by teenagers.
They've
become vital for business too - but is it an addiction? Inside
Out decided to find out! The
test| Are you a mobile maniac? | If
you're familiar with all the abbreviations in our txt dictionary,
you may well be! :-) Happy ;-D Grinning %-) Confused
or merry :-7 Smirk :'-D Crying
with laughter :-x Small
kiss :-X Big
sloppy kiss :-)... Drooling <3 A
love heart @--^-- A
rose :'-( Crying %-( Confused >:-( Angry
yet sad /:-| Unamused,
mildly cross
>:-| Cross >:-@! Angry
and swearing >8-D Evil,
crazed laughter |
With
a great degree of difficulty, Inside Out persuaded three mobile
addicts to go a whole week without their mobiles… - Jon Evans
- Age:
thirty something
Lives:
Colchester
Occupation:
Estate Agent - Rhea Sturman
- Age:17
Lives:
Northamptonshire
Occupation:
Student - Liva Chann
- Age:17
Lives:
Northamptonshire
Occupation:
Student
Jon's
nightmareSuch
is the level of the business person's dependency, Jon Evans refused
to go without his mobile for longer than one day. His
secretary Sally Reed can't believe that he agreed. She
says, "I don't know how he's going to manage." Jon’s
mobile-free day didn't pass without event. Presenter
Nina Hobson found one hidden in his glove compartment - and another
in the drinks container. Jon
even tried to borrow a mobile from a passer by in the street as
he didn't have enough money for a pay phone. At
the end of the day he concluded that he could well have lost 10s
of thousands of pounds due to missed calls. Would
he do it again? "Definitely not!" Teenagers'
traumaInside
Out left Rhia and Liva with a video camera to record their mobile-free
period. By
day two they were suffering. What
the girls don’t know is that one evening the Inside Out team were
watching them with a hidden camera. Rhea
was caught using her mobile to text. "I
know I was wrong", she says, "especially as I was sitting right
next to a pay phone!" Behaviour
analystThe
results were analysed by Communications Psychologist Adam Joinson
from the Open University in Milton Keynes. He
wasn’t surprised to see Jon resorting to cheating. "For
the business person the mobile now has a material value as well".
Overall
he believes we are seeing a "serious dependency", with people suffering
feelings of loss and alienation when deprived of their mobiles.
Some
people say that for young people, it’s better that they spend their
money on mobiles than drink or cigarettes. But
whether or not it’s really more healthy remains to be seen! | 
ÌýÌýInside Out - East: Monday 18th October, 2004
ÌýÌýREALPLAYER REQUIRED