main bulk of essay!

Mobile phones and society

Abstract
Mobile phones can be advantageous to society as they allow for communication easily, can come with a lot of facilities such as text messaging, camera, Bluetooth and internet access. However that does not mean we should be blind to the faults they can have such as people becoming too reliant on them, health issues, cyber bulling and causing a lack of social aptness.

Introduction
The invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 was heralded as a miracle with advertisements even going so far as showing a little girl asking to be put through to her mother in heaven. In recent times advances in technology mean that even the simple mobile cellular phone invented in 1973 by Dr. Martin Hooper, an employee of Motorola (buzzle.com, 07/11/09), were made obsolete very quickly. Mobile phones have progressed from 1st generation to 2nd generation and now even to 3rd with phones such as the iPhone 3G. First generation phones were the analogue phones that had ‘832 frequencies, 790 for voice and 42 for data’ (howstuffworks.com, 10/11/09), 2nd generation phones were the first digital phones, the analogue signal is converted to binary and then compressed so that 10 digital calls can be made in the same space it would take to make 1 analogue call (howstuffworks.com, 10/11/09). 3rd generation phones have an even higher transfer rate of 2 megabits per second, which means better quality calls as well as increased flexibility for applications such as games and video conferencing (guardian.co.uk, 11/11/09). Mobile phones have become increasingly popular with only 26% of Britain's adult population owning one in 1999/00 compared to 85% in 2008/9 (csu.nisra.gov.uk, 07/11/09) with Nokia predicting that 4 billion people worldwide will own one by 2015 (guardian.co.uk, 07/11/09), but though so many have them, do they have a positive or negative affect on society?

Research methodology

The research undertaken was done using only second hand sources found from search engines, namely Google and Google Scholar as well as Anglia Ruskin’s online library catalogue.

The ability of the mobile to allow quick and easy communication from almost anywhere in the world is the main function and purpose of a mobile phone. This functionality means that people can talk to others when it suits them rather than having to wait until they have access to a landline phone, this means more flexibility for the user. It can be said that this added flexibility can be useful in emergency situations, such as when the emergency services need to be called as someone will not have to run to the nearest house or payphone to reach assistance. However mobile phones must have some signal strength before they can make a call, this is because the call is transmitted via radio waves to base stations which transmit to other base stations and so on. If the mobile is too far away from a base station it will have no signal and therefore be incapable of making a call, which is where landlines have the advantage as they use cables and so are always connected.

The increased flexibility allows for easier socialising as conversations can be held anywhere at any time. This is especially true of phones that also have text messaging facilities, as this allows people to converse even in situations where talking would be difficult e.g. a library. Mobile phones have also had an affect on the business world, it means that communication inside organizations, which is often bad with hierarchical structure, is greatly improved as employees no longer return to the office contact clients as details can be saved on their phone and therefore can call them up if for example they need to change the appointment time whilst they’re on the move. However it could be said that conversations through a mobile also stops a person from socialising as they will not be actually talking face-to-face. This means that people are missing on the aspects of conversation that cannot be portrayed through a mobile phone, such as facial or even tone of voice in the case of text messaging. Another factor that has been brought up in the research is the habit of some people to talk unnecessarily loud when on the mobile phone often to the discomfort or annoyance of others. It is suggested that this may be because on a subconscious level the others are annoyed that the person would rather be talking a person several miles away than the person they are sitting next to (Levinson, 2004).

Even more recent technological development means that mobile phones can also have camera’s, MP3 players and PDA’s built in as well as Bluetooth connectivity, which allows for free file transfer between phones, and internet and internet access with some recent phones even having similar capabilities as laptops (app 1). Having all these devices in a mobile phone means much greater efficiency than carrying all the items separately and is cheaper than buying them all, but with more functionality comes greater prices (app 2). Also there are the costs associated with mobile phones, the phone companies or networks charge money for their use. There are two main ways to pay the networks, contracts or pay-as-you-go, the latter is generally used by those people that do not use there phone for contacting others often as it means they pay for the time they use as they use it, and when their credit runs out they simply top-up. Contracts are agreements between the user and the network, that will state how many minuets the use gets (for calls) and how many texts they get, the price of the contract will vary due to the number of minutes and texts wanted as well as what model phone they choose to have the contract with (app 3). For those who have who have multi – functional phones there is the trend to rely on it to much and not back up any of the information stored on there, so that if the phone is lost then all the information such as pictures, songs and appointments. Developing some older technologies to work on mobile phones has also increased the popularity and convenience of these mobile phones as people already know and understand how to use it e.g. touch screen.

Another example of being socially irresponsible is cyber bullying which has also been in the news recently (news.bbc.co.uk, 09/11/09) this is where normal bullying is carried out via mobile phones, emails, social networking sites or instant messengers/chatrooms. In the case of mobile phones cyber bullying is often done by text messaging as it means the sender can remain relatively unknown as their voice is not heard. This bullying is considered one of the worst by Child Line as the person cannot really escape from it. Research done by the NSPCC shows that 20% of 11-19 year olds had been cyber bullied, with text message bulling being the most common at 14% (nspcc.org.uk, 07/11/09).

Another issue that has been raised is the possible health risks caused by mobile phones from the radio signals they produce causing adverse affects to the blood brain barrier which allows the brain to be opened up to proteins and toxins contained in the blood (news.bbc.co.uk, 07/11/09). Also electromagnetic radiation, caused by the inner workings of the mobile phone has been linked to causing brain cancer (proparations.net, 07/11/09). However many scientists agree that the tests carried out so varied that the results are inconclusive, but most agree that the levels of radiation are too low. It is possible that the new 3rd generation phones may offer a potentially higher risk as they use higher frequency bands to transmit data than normal 2nd generation phones.

Although a recent law has banned talking on a mobile phone unless it is through a wireless headset, many people still do, and this has lead to road traffic accidents, as the driver has only one hand free to steer the car. However recent research by The George Institute for International Health at the University of Sydney shows that actually it may be that talking on the phone in any form, even through the headset, could be the cause as it slows down the drivers reaction time, as the odds ratio of 4:1without a headset and 3:8 without a headset as the conclusion states ‘When drivers use a mobile phone there is an increased likelihood of a crash resulting in injury. Using a hands-free phone is not any safer.’ (Cercarelli, 2005)

The environment is another consideration we must take into account. Mobile phones are non-biodegradable this makes them quite difficult to get rid of responsibly. Mobiles contain some parts that are dangerous to just throw away such as the battery. Recently the idea of recycling the old mobile phones has meant that many people have dug out their old mobiles and send them off, especially as some companies such as Mazuma Mobile or Envirofone will give people money for their old mobiles which then get passed on to be used again. Some charities will also ask for old mobile phones as a donation so they can then sell them to raise money. A recent statement from Orange, the mobile network, states that ‘two-thirds of UK households have old mobiles lying around which equates to approximately 90 million handsets worth around £450m’ (news.bbc.co.uk, 09/11/09). Many mobile phone manufacturers now have a recycling facility as a new EU directive called the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive (WEEE) which means that manufacturers must provide a way to recycle their product (eur-lex.europa.eu, 09/11/09).

Conclusion

There are both advantages and disadvantages to mobile phones, they allow us to communicate with others and their huge array of functions along with their flexibility makes our lives easier and more efficient. However as with any technology there are those who will abuse and misuse it, such as those who allow themselves to become too reliant on them, or use them to harm others either intentionally or unintentionally. In the end it is up to the individual to decide whether or not they pay attention to the health risks and other problems continue anyway.

Literature review

Telephones have been around for over a hundred years and Levinson 2004 argues that although mobiles are called ‘miracle phones’ in Israel and being able to talk to someone miles away is amazing, today’s society takes it for granted. He also argues that people’s subconscious desire to communicate is the reason people get so annoyed with those who speak loudly on the phone. Cercarelli 2005 concludes that although talking on the phone does increase the likelihood of being involved in a road traffic accident, whether it’s done through handset or headset has very little difference, which Cox 2003 supports saying that the main problem is caused by the drivers’ attention being distracted not the inability to use both hands. The journal written by the European parliament on the directive of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive (WEEE) sets out to determine who exactly the manufacturers of electricals are and what responsibilities they have towards the environment. This journal not only includes mobile phone manufacturers and recycling but all electrical manufacturers and what they have to do to be economically responsible e.g. where they get their raw materials from and what materials they should use.