The other side of mobile telephony in manipur society

Seram Neken *

We have never dreamt of unwired pocket sets to talk to each other around the world. But the introduction of cellphone has bypassed geographical limits. All are in touch with each other anytime and anywhere, if he/she has a mobile phone. No doubt, Mobile telephony is one of the most explosive developments ever to have taken place in the telecommunications industry worldwide. Traditionally the two spheres of the public work and the private family were clearly separated in terms of time and space.

Today, the mobile phone has radically transformed these boundaries, making them increasingly permeable. People are increasingly staying in touch with work while at home, and vice versa. Although, these developments represent a threat to the quality of modern life, it provides new opportunities for integrating work and family life. With mobiles, we are completely relieved from feelings of time pressure and time poverty.

In this computerized globalized world, mobile phones increase the ability to coordinate activities across the globe. It is no longer necessary to conduct communications from an office desk. Multi-tasking - completing a task in the background while concentrating one's direct attention on another activity has become effective.

It indeed offers enormous advantages - added convenience, greater personal security, boost in business sector, saving time and resources in workplace, mobility and connectedness among friends and family. In highly industrialized societies where everything is quick and fast, mobile phone acts as the most convenient pocket tool. More tasks are completed, more people are connected and more time and space saved.

But the picture isn't all rosy. Like most young technologies, mobile telephony is experiencing its share of teething troubles like environmental impact, health problems, safety issues, increasing lack of interpersonal interactions and, of course, the changing youth behavior. Increasing social alienation coupled with deceitfulness, lying and dishonest are consequences of mobile telephony.

Excessive exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) may cause such undesirable effects as memory loss, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and even brain tumors. It may affect the nerve cells responsible for short-term memory. Use of mobiles distracts the activities on the move. Driving with talking cause accidents - recently there was a report of falling to death of a man while using his mobile phone upstairs. When people are talking on a mobile phone, they're often paying less attention than they should to what's going on around them.

Of course, there are people who reap the benefits of this new medium.

In touch - Anytime, Anywhere

"If you use a mobile phone a lot, you need your head examined." is the saying in various quarters now. Another word is "If your daughter sleeps the whole night awake with her handset, her next days go-out needs to be examined" The new freedoms brought by mobile telephony to our youngsters will one day become a big negation to their healthy behavior. To be in touch with friends or rather peers all day and night during adolescence is definitely destructive to their academic as well as behavioral issues. Chatting with liberty freely with peer opposite sexes, using socially undesirable words, teasing each other out of reach to others etc. will be of no fine consequences to their behavior.

Taking advantage of mobile phones, young boys and girls find a New Liberty to chat and behave more securely. New media in the form of cellphones has disturbed academic growth and more often among the middle class youths of Manipur. Always contactable means always available - to some busy people it means highly beneficial and to most adolescents it helps find more pleasure and more free to do socially undesirable things.

SMS with unwanted pics and words to amuse friends, whole-day chatting with boy-friends and girlfriends etc. are regular features among young Manipuris today. Pre-marital sexual activities find a good probability where growing boys and girls indulge in Always and Anytime connectivity networks. With aides of cellphones, elders and parents are handicap in controlling the behavior of their wards.

There are also undesirable side-effects of an increasingly 'unwired' world. We have seen young smart guys listening to earphone music on the streets, even in classrooms. This is not a healthy sign as far as their excellence in any endeavor is considered. Of course, parents find a little relief from anxiety when their wards are away from home as there is always a connectivity. This will, in no way, mean more obedient and good. Parent-ward unwired all-time connectivity will in turn increase the chances of the latter's pretention and indulgence in unexpected behavior.

Minding users

All are mad - those walking on the streets, driving cars, sitting alone in office, even in toilets always murmur. You are not alone, you are in connectivity with the whole world. However, it frequently annoys and disturbs others in religious gatherings, funerals, weddings, dining-parties, conferences and meetings. So, let the mobile phones sleep a while whenever it is appropriate.

Minding Parents

Let your adolescent wards use mobile phones in limited time and limited circumstances. Collect and keep it whenever he/she is at home so that you are aware of any caller to the phone. Be alert, check SMSs and call logs stealthily and regularly.

My share of thought

Campaign aimed at encouraging more responsible and considerate use of cellphones will be highly powerful in checking youth's behavior. The negative impacts of mobile phone on youth's behavior need to be studied academically as it can be more dangerous than drugs and HIV. With a little effort on everyone's part, the benefits of mobile connectivity should serve to enhance our experience of life, offering us more freedom, and ultimately creating a better society in which people really do feel closer together.