The Pros and Cons of Mobile Telephones

570 Words2 Pages

Mobile phones seem to help ‘young’ people a lot in today’s society.

Although past generations seem to have been able to cope with the

slapstick communication, mobile phones have made it a lot easier for

parents or guardians to get in touch with their children. Mobile

phones are also very useful if there is an emergency whilst the child

or ‘young’ person needs to communicate with the emergency forces or

their parents.

Research published in November 2003 shows that 96% of 15 to

24-year-olds own a cell phone and cannot function normally without

one. For teenagers and young adults, large mobile phone bills are a

highly valued status symbol since making and receiving calls implies

popularity.

The number of mobile phones in Britain has broken the 50 million

barrier - helped by up to six million text-crazy children. The latest

report into the industry by analysts Continental Research revealed

yesterday that the 50 million figure was achieved some time during the

summer of 2003, but the rate of growth is slowing. Youngsters own an

ever-growing number of handsets. Text messaging and, more recently,

photo messaging have boomed among younger users, Many of whom own

phones discarded by their parents. It is believed about 35 million

adults - around seven in 10 of the grown-up population - now own a

mobile phone, which leaves another 15 million unaccounted for. The

figures are based on subscriptions to monthly contracts and

pay-as-you-go sales from the major networks. The 15 million will

include many 'second' phones in families where people have one phone

for work and one for pleasure.

It is believed up to two in three secondary school children now have

mobiles, as well as one in four primary school pupils, aged four to

11.Britons now send 42 million text messages a day – more than double

the total a year ago. Poor spelling and punctuation in exams has a

long history. Examiners' reports from the 1800s complain about

students' mistakes. This year's continuation of tales of grammatical

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