The effect of mobile phones
Introduction
The life of human beings has changed a great deal in the past 10 years. One of the most life changing gadgets is the mobile phone which has allowed us to do so much. Mobile phones can be used to:
leave notes for yourself and or for others
Listening to music on the go
Looking at pictures
Taking pictures / Taking videos
Making a video call
Make phone calls from anywhere in the World
Playing games
Go on social networking sites ( Facebook, Bebo and MySpace)
Surf the internet
How does all this affect us (the users)? I am investigating the positive and negative effect of mobile phones on the user because mobile phones are used so much now and mobile phones are also known to cause some problems. Recently, the media have published stories linking mobile phones to the development of brain tumours.
Positive
Leaving notes for yourself and/or other people can be used in your business e.g. must look up how recycling has changed. Or used in your personal life e.g. put washing up away.
Listening to music on the go is positive because it can help people to relax; some people believe that it helps them to walk/run faster; some people say it helps them to concentrate if they are revising.
Looking at pictures is good because it entertains some people especially if it’s a funny picture, there’s a saying that goes “right time right place” and to remember what happened e.g. meeting someone famous, some people take pictures on their mobile phones to be creative like photographers
Taking pictures / videos is good because you can use it for evidence in accidents car crashes and in other crimes like in robberies to record what they were saying and or what they took and or what they are doing. Video’s can also be used to record lovely events like a baby’s first steps.
Do a video call is good because it is basically a mini web cam so you can contact anyone in a different country either for personal or professional reasons.
Making phone calls is one of the most effective uses of a mobile phone because you can use your phone in different countries to ring anywhere in the World for either business uses or to make personal calls to family members and friends.
Playing games is good because it gives you time to relax from your day and is a way of socialising with your friends and contacts.
Negative
The negative aspects of mobile phones include excessive use of text language can mean that some people have little idea on the correct spelling and grammar to use in normal writing. Also text language can be very confusing and some people may not be able to understand a message e.g. “hey il brb r u in 2day” which means “hey I will be right back, are you in today?”
Listening to music on the go can have a negative effect because if someone is listening to music on their bike it might make it more relaxing to ride but it cuts you off from what is happening around you so you might not hear the siren of an emergency vehicle, or another road user sounding their horn as a warning and even traffic noise that would warn you that buses or lorries were near you.
Looking at pictures is negative because it can distract people walking on the pavement and if they suddenly walk into the road they could cause an accident.
Taking pictures/videos could be negative because someone could use them in activities such as crime and/ or violence related (e.g. happy slaps).
Making a video call can be negative because it can be used anywhere which can distract people especially if it’s in a public place which is very busy e.g. Oxford street.
The negative aspects of making phone calls is because it costs too much to make one phone call from one country to another country e.g. England to Australia would normally cost 50p upward for one minute and even to receive a phone call when you are abroad costs you money.
Playing games can be negative because it can waste your time so much e.g. you will start to play a game at 10:00 am and the next time you check the time it could be 5:00 pm and you wonder where the time has gone to.
Recently medical research has indicated that using a mobile phone can lead to the following illnesses particularly in young users:
Brain tumour: a brain tumour can be caused by using a mobile phone for too long which can cause the brain to warm up
Joint pains: Many mobile phone users complain of Neck pain, Thumb pain, Wrist pain and Elbow pain
· Damage to babies: damage to babies can be caused by a woman using a mobile phone when pregnant and putting the phone on her stomach it can cause hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships.
* Memory loss: a university of Washington was researching on cell phones and they have discovered that rats exposed to cell phone microwaves suffer long-term memory loss
Headaches: Headaches can be cause by putting your mobile phone on a loud volume when talking to someone and if you’re listening to music with earphones in
Scientists disagree on the effects of using mobile phones, some researchers suggest that mobile phones should come with a Government health warning but government officials from the Defence, Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) have advised the public “not to be alarmed by reports that mobile phones cause health problems” they stated that some experiments have been carried out on rats which indicated adverse health effects but that further research was necessary to produce evidence-based recommendations. However they also stated that it was sensible to reduce excessive use of mobile phones.
After stating the positive and negative effects that using mobile phones can have on a person’s way of life, I have made a technical drawing to show how I would improve the design of mobile phones so that the negative effects could be reduced and to boost the positive effects.
HOW I WOULD CHANGE THE WAY MOBILE PHONES ARE DESIGNED
I would change how mobile phones are designed because as I am doing products design A level, I can look at products with a critical eye.
I decided to draw an exploded mobile phone. I will write what I would do or change:
I would use Polymorph because it would be easier to use as the outer layer which means that you could shape it any way you want so it can be shaped like your fingers and or hands which should help people texting.
I would use acrylic because it would be easy to use as the buttons and you can cut them out using a laser cutter which means they can be cut to any size and any shape (if it wasn’t a touch screen phone)
Instead of having a screen and a keypad i would make it so the phone was a touch screen so u can have it both qwerty (horizontal) and normal(vertical) pad