How to deal with mobile phones
Saturday, 10 November 2007
Rashada Akther Shimul
The Physics class at a college in Dhaka is interrupted by a musical ringer from a mobile. The teacher discovered the mobile in the hands of one of her students _ a gift from his parents for doing well in the last SSC examinations.
The disruption in the lecture annoys the teacher who immediately orders a ban on carrying mobiles in the class room.
Mobile phones are the new craze for the teenagers in Bangladesh. What has started as a modern day necessity mainly for people in business is now almost a fashion or a prestigious commodity for many who don't really need it. Even children are using mobile phones just for chatting their valuable hours which should have been dedicated to studies. The first mobile phones fair held in Dhaka this year thus became a huge attraction for the young people _ many of the college students.
Because of the huge demand the growth of mobile phones has seen a phenomenal rise in Bangladesh in recent months. The number of mobile phone users has crossed three million and the number has been increasing by leaps and bounds. The country has now four mobile phone operators and competition among them is getting strong every day. New products are being marketed to make the services more attractive to the users. Young people are being targeted as potential buyers.
Consider the case of Sumon, who has just passed his SSC and got into a college. He has a mobile phone presented to him by his businessman father. The father argues that his decision was dictated by security reasons.
``There are crimes, murders and abductions every where. My son goes to college alone. We do worry a lot all the time he is out. The mobile phone is the perfect way of keeping in touch with him," says the father.
Farida Akhtar, a housewife in Eskaton, has similar worries for her school-going son Rubaiyat. One day the boy was very late to return home from the school. His mother Farida was worried. She had no idea what was delaying her son's return. She came to know about it only after the boy was back home. Farida had applied for a land line telephone, but that was not coming. She already holds a mobile and bought one more for her son so she can remain in touch with him.
"I'm so relaxed now, even though holding an extra mobile phone is so expensive, " she says. "But the safety and security of my son come first."
It is today unthinkable to live in a world without mobiles and Internet. But critics say there are many harmful effects from the uncontrolled use of these sophisticated tools of communication. How badly teenagers need mobiles? This is one of the major criticism against handing mobile phones to the teenagers who are likely to use them more for chatting away time and money than putting the phones in good use.
Fahmidul Haq, a teacher at Dhaka's University's Mass communication and Journalism, does not think that teenagers should be given mobile phones.
He says, "It's true mobiles phone has usefulness. It make communication easy and removes uncertainty in communication. But consider how mobile phones can be expensive. Calls rate are very high here. Middle class people, already struggling to meet the both ends in these days of rising prices are placed under more financial pressure if they hold mobile phones."
Many say mobile phones are taking the teenagers away from their main task: the study with devotion. Mobile phone-holding teenagers build up relationships with their friends mostly for meaningless conversation. The relationship they grow is shallow. The operators are appealing to the teenagers with controversial packages. Late night calls and idle conversations are encouraged with lower call rates. An easy communication should not always mean good. Such communication can lead children to bad company too.
The operators admit it. As one official said their company has a policy of targeting the youth.But teacher Fahmidul Haq says, ``We just can't wish away the modern technology. Technology will come and stay. But we must learn how to make judicious use of it."
— NewsNetwork
The Physics class at a college in Dhaka is interrupted by a musical ringer from a mobile. The teacher discovered the mobile in the hands of one of her students _ a gift from his parents for doing well in the last SSC examinations.
The disruption in the lecture annoys the teacher who immediately orders a ban on carrying mobiles in the class room.
Mobile phones are the new craze for the teenagers in Bangladesh. What has started as a modern day necessity mainly for people in business is now almost a fashion or a prestigious commodity for many who don't really need it. Even children are using mobile phones just for chatting their valuable hours which should have been dedicated to studies. The first mobile phones fair held in Dhaka this year thus became a huge attraction for the young people _ many of the college students.
Because of the huge demand the growth of mobile phones has seen a phenomenal rise in Bangladesh in recent months. The number of mobile phone users has crossed three million and the number has been increasing by leaps and bounds. The country has now four mobile phone operators and competition among them is getting strong every day. New products are being marketed to make the services more attractive to the users. Young people are being targeted as potential buyers.
Consider the case of Sumon, who has just passed his SSC and got into a college. He has a mobile phone presented to him by his businessman father. The father argues that his decision was dictated by security reasons.
``There are crimes, murders and abductions every where. My son goes to college alone. We do worry a lot all the time he is out. The mobile phone is the perfect way of keeping in touch with him," says the father.
Farida Akhtar, a housewife in Eskaton, has similar worries for her school-going son Rubaiyat. One day the boy was very late to return home from the school. His mother Farida was worried. She had no idea what was delaying her son's return. She came to know about it only after the boy was back home. Farida had applied for a land line telephone, but that was not coming. She already holds a mobile and bought one more for her son so she can remain in touch with him.
"I'm so relaxed now, even though holding an extra mobile phone is so expensive, " she says. "But the safety and security of my son come first."
It is today unthinkable to live in a world without mobiles and Internet. But critics say there are many harmful effects from the uncontrolled use of these sophisticated tools of communication. How badly teenagers need mobiles? This is one of the major criticism against handing mobile phones to the teenagers who are likely to use them more for chatting away time and money than putting the phones in good use.
Fahmidul Haq, a teacher at Dhaka's University's Mass communication and Journalism, does not think that teenagers should be given mobile phones.
He says, "It's true mobiles phone has usefulness. It make communication easy and removes uncertainty in communication. But consider how mobile phones can be expensive. Calls rate are very high here. Middle class people, already struggling to meet the both ends in these days of rising prices are placed under more financial pressure if they hold mobile phones."
Many say mobile phones are taking the teenagers away from their main task: the study with devotion. Mobile phone-holding teenagers build up relationships with their friends mostly for meaningless conversation. The relationship they grow is shallow. The operators are appealing to the teenagers with controversial packages. Late night calls and idle conversations are encouraged with lower call rates. An easy communication should not always mean good. Such communication can lead children to bad company too.
The operators admit it. As one official said their company has a policy of targeting the youth.But teacher Fahmidul Haq says, ``We just can't wish away the modern technology. Technology will come and stay. But we must learn how to make judicious use of it."
— NewsNetwork