anna,saaru, cellu
Every other day, the city pages of Bangalore newspapers carry a news item on these lines:
Two boys runaway with money from home …. One of them wanted to buy a cell phone.
Boy runs away with money kept for sister’s marriage to buy a cell phone.
Woman robbed of cell phone at knifepoint
Man attacks young professional and takes away cash, cell phone.
Why this increase in cell phone targeted crimes?
Has a cell phone become one of the basic needs of living like roti, kapda and makan that it induces the “have-not”s to target the “have”s?
Or has it become a symbol of being “macho” or “worthy of attention” for the younger generation – like cigarettes, jeans etc. in an earlier time?
They have definitely become more than mere tools for communication. Agreed that they have many useful features and can be powerful tools in the right hands but unfortunately they are mostly found in the wrong hands who use it as a plaything rather than as a tool for necessary communication.
A study conducted in Mumbai on trends in mobile phone usage had some interesting points which are evidently applicable to all major cities in India. For example, when asked what their motivation was to buy a cell phone,
68.42 % respondents in the age group 15-19 and 73.19% in the age group 20 -24 said it was because “everybody around had one with them” while most in the age group of 25-29 had it because “they wanted to have one” or because “their work required it”.
Advertisements have created the value of perceived coolness to cell phone usage in their attempt to create a market for cell phones among youth – how the possession of a high end gadget can add to a person’s sex-appeal or his status among peers. Take this advertisement for a brand of color cell phones:
The bride and the groom are at the altar taking their marriage vows. The boy’s phone rings and he rushes out of the church in order to hide his shameful black and white phone.
And the bride walks out in the arms of the best man.
It is romantic moment on the seaside in a car. The phone rings and the boy runs far away before taking the black white phone out. The girl drives away in anger.
Initially I found the advertisements bizarre and exaggerated but as I look around and see the way youth are addicted to cell phones, it may not be far from reflecting the reality.
Prepaid cards seem to come at rates as low as Rs.50 and with so many benefits for the young like free calls or SMS messages during certain hours between users of the same network. All this has made the usage cost less while the instruments are still expensive or at least beyond the reach of certain sections. And this is what has led them to seek the shortcut through theft of the instruments.
Apparently the safety precautions against using stolen instruments which the cell phone manufacturers provide in many countries are still not in force in our country. This makes it easy for anyone to steal an instrument and put a different SIM card and start using it.
Looking around at the election promises of some of the neighboring states going to the polls, I would not be surprised if some party comes up with the idea of assuring a cell phone for every unemployed person over 18!
Really these cellphones have become nuisance. One funny thing is – my wrist watch has an hourly chirp, which is almost similar to the default beep-beep of message alert. While travelling by bus when my watch makes noise – atleast 5-10 ppl take out their cells and checks whether they hav got the msg or not!! :P
PS: On the other hand I am thinking to get rid of my cell.
The days of cell phones as statement are long gone.
Cell phones are basic communication necessities now… and communication is a basic human necessity. It’s surprising anyone still wonders why they need one.
Cell phone advertising is to cell phones what fashion is to clothes. Just because it exists doesn’t imply anyone wonders if clothes are necessary at all.
Cell-phones are really helpful only to contact people in case of emergency. Otherwise, they are nuisances for sure.
Usha,
Re: “….some of the neighboring states going to the polls, I would not be surprised if some party comes up with the idea of assuring a cell phone for every unemployed person over 18!”.
Nope.
Rice is the news staple of the pre-poll developments here, I can assure you!
:)
Its not the cell phone which is the nuiscance but the non availability of it. The mobile phone is a communication tool which has a potential of changing poeples lives. This century has hardly seen any revolution such as the mobile phone. The mobile phone companines on the other hand is more interested in earning profits for their products. Nothing wrong with that, but thats the reason for the overpriced phones.
Consider this, the GSM Network covers allmost 80 % of the worlds population. But only 25 % amongst them actually own a handset. For the rest its the price which is the entry barrier.
We need more cell cheaper cell phones.
I will not really undermine the neccessity of a cellphone. Ofcourse there was a time when I lived without a cellphone. But ever since I have owned one, and know what it is like to be connected at all times, I can tell that it is not a nuisance provided it is not misused. I do hate people who misuse the wonderful device.
1. Cinema theatres, concerts, meetings, waiting rooms where a loud ring of the cellphone is really unwelcome.
2. Students using cellphones (they run their chatting and dating networks on it!)
3. People who possess a cellphone to be “in” fashion.
I remember a quote from my Maharashtra state DL “Driving is not a right, it is a privilege. Do not misuse it.” Samething goes for cellphones too. It is a privilege. Not a right.
they are mostly found in the wrong hands who use it as a plaything rather than as a tool for necessary communication.
That is disturbingly judgemental, and IMO completely uncalled for.
Initially I found the advertisements bizarre and exaggerated but as I look around and see the way youth are addicted to cell phones, it may not be far from reflecting the reality.
The good old “aaj kal ke bachche” line of “reasoning”.
Sample: “Oh, I had to walk 10 kms to go to school, you have it so easy”. “Oh we didn’t even have TV in our days, you kids spend so much time in front of it boo hoo what will happen to you”
A cell phone in the hands of a ‘desi’ in the US is indeed a statement of fashion, utility and plain show-offs. One should see the newly-arrived H1-Bs, with their tight pants, oversized Nikes’s and appropriately logo-ed T-shirts, walking around shopping malls on weekends, but with a “bevy” of cellphones and beepers hanging from their otherwise skinny waists! Here in Atlanta, I’ve seen them walk from end to end in a mall and quietly depart after the parade. Most (or is it many?) Indians in the US who have a cellphone are rude and totally ignorant of their surroundings – temple, highways, restaurants, etc.. chatting away in a high-pitched sing-song fashion…It’s really really annoying and I suspect it’s the case in Bengalooru too!
Our cook, had a cellphone, and she said she spent at least 500Rs on it, per month (we paid her a little over that).
Cellphones are no-more a ‘status-symbol’ – unless you’re amongst the gadget conscious and sport an uber-cool model. They’re a basic mode of communication – and are fairly cheap, even the handsets.