Mobile phone: Its effects on our lives

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Md Atikur Rahman
The citizens of the global village are expected to be mobile, freely transient over space, and always connected, wired to the worldwide communication chain anywhere anytime. Thence, mobile phones have become part of our everyday life. Nowadays, mobile phones have vastly changed the way we communicate with each other. A mobile phone can be all you need for communicating. From a mobile phone you make calls, send text messages, emails, send and receive directions, go on the internet, buy things, do online banking, listen to music and much more. In that one device, you can do everything. There is no longer a need for multiple devices and you can be on the move doing it all. However, many consider cellular phones are perfectly proper, if not essential, as a round the clock business and personal tool, others question such unrestricted usage. All have their justifications.
The mobile phone has become a common and cheap product. Almost everyone has two or three mobile phones. It has become an indispensable part of daily life.
The basic function of mobile phone is to make and receive calls from anywhere you have service. Even though they can do more, calling is their main function. This function enables a person to make or receive a call without having to worry about location. The main benefit of a mobile phone is convenience. All you need is one device. You no longer need to go out of your way to do something. If you need to send an email at lunch, you can. If you need directions, you can get them, and if you need to get online, it is there for you.
On the other hand, this device has been known to cause users some problems. Mobile phones help you stay in touch, but they are also a hindrance in certain situations. Avoiding mobile phones completely may not be an option, but understanding the problems they cause makes it easier to use them in the proper manner.
On the most negative uses of mobile is when access them while driving. While more attention has been given to driving and text messaging, many people still do it on a regular basis. So, mobile phone use while operating a vehicle has caused so many accidents.
Some people use mobile phones as a way to invade others' privacy, with advancements in technology. It is possible to spy on people and keep track of what they are doing with their mobile phones. For example, phones make it possible to record a conversation or use the GPS capability to pinpoint where an individual is. Some married people read their spouse's text messages to see if they are up to anything that they should not be doing.
A large percentage of students use mobile phones in class, and some dating websites have taken to warning daters away from cell use during meet-ups. Some students use mobile phone as a way to enhance cheating on tests and assignments. One-third of students with mobile phone admit to cheating with them at some point. In class, students communicate with others through a quick text message or email. For example, one student takes a test getting answers from another student outside the room with a textbook. Assignments are also easily photographed and text messaged or emailed to a friend. With wide availability of mobile phones, they have changed the landscape of education in general.
Another potentially negative way to use a mobile phone is to talk on it loudly in public place. Mobile users often do not take into consideration how their talking on a mobile phone affects others in the adjacent area.
Cell phones emit low levels of RF (radio frequency) radiation. Large amounts of this energy can heat and damage tissue, especially around the eyes and testicles, which do not have enough blood flow to carry away such heat. There is also concern that mobile phone might cause cancer, headaches, sheep problems and memory loss.
Mobile phone effects on teenagers. They waste time on compulsive communication with peers via text SMS and phone calls.
There are positive aspects of mobile phone too. Many situations can place a person in danger, and mobile phone can help when you are in an unsafe situation. Car accidents, severe medical conditions, danger situations and travelling alone can necessitate contacting someone quickly for assistance. With direct or roaming coverage in all but the most remote areas of our country, mobile phone enhances the ability of people to resolve emergency situations. Mobile phone allows people to be in contact with friends, family and co-workers. Smart mobile phones add to this convenience by allowing you to check email and even send files from remote locations.
Mobile phones have had a positive and negative impact on crime. They have had more of a positive effect with victims receiving help which they might not have before. The negatives have been the use of mobile phones as tools in committing crimes. Unfortunately, the mobile phone has had a negative impact on traffic crimes too, such as fatal accidents.
Mobile phones have become a tool in the speed for reporting a crime. Almost everyone is carrying their mobile phone with them when they are out in the community. When a crime takes place there is no more looking around for the nearest phone. This allows the crime to be reported sooner than it was before mobile phones were prevalent. Quicker reporting means a quicker response by authorities.
Mobile cameras help in crime reducing. For example, mobile phones help to cut down hit-and-run crimes. People are snapping pictures of the cars leaving the scene and the police are able to track the suspects through these pictures. These pictures also act as evidence for the prosecution of the crime. Authorities can track mobile phones as long as they are turned on. If an abduction victim has his/her mobile phone on, his/her location can be tracked and he/she be rescued. Police can look at the lost phone calls made and received on a missing person's mobile phone through the carrier's records. By finding what cell towers picked up these calls, officials will have a starting point for missing person's last known location. Mobile phone records have been used in solving murders and other crimes.
Mobile phones, especially the disposable ones, have made it more difficult for police to trace or listen to the calls of known drug kingpins and crime figures. Tapping phones used to give authorities many leads and evidence of crime activity. This has been foiled by the prevalent use of mobile phones. Drug dealers might get a new mobile phone weekly just to avoid these tactics, which could lead to their arrest.
Mobile phones have been a cause of crime. Despite many laws and warnings, people are still talking and texting on their mobile phones while driving. This is causing numerous traffic accidents. When someone dies due to this negligence, arrests are often made for involuntary manslaughter.
The unavoidable human tragedy is all our endeavours end in toxic byproducts. The best innovations have all too frequently caused the worst incidents. I have always believed that mobile phones are beneficial, no doubt, but they have been inarticulately used, if not abused, to the point of attrition. Thus, the reasonable conclusion of the argument for and against the unrestricted usage of mobile phones to be made is that the goodness of it is subjective and is reflective of the likeness of the user's intentions.
[The writer is Librarian, BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology (BUFT), Uttara, Dhaka. He can be reached at e-mail: atik@bift.info]