CELL PHONES: THE SOCIAL CONNECTOR ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Through the use of cell phones, keeping in touch with one another is as simple as pushing a button.

We are now connected to people in the various parts of the world; even those people on the other side of the globe can be accessed in a second. Yes, we are socially connected. Our "door ke rishtedaar" aren't so far off now, and the auntie who was your neighbour when what seemed like ages ago, is now your Facebook friend.

With so many advantages a phone offers, it is difficult to list them out.

Keeping in touch has never been easier. The easy to carry cell phone fits everywhere: from pockets to purses.

Cell phones are a safety measure too, especially for young people venturing out. In case of an emergency, cell phones are the key to the crucial information one's family needs to know.

The cell phone technology has speeded up small as well as large businesses. The business world has been greatly enhanced. And due to this, employment rates have increased.

The phones never are only for calling; they all are multipurpose. The GPS makes sure one doesn't get lost; the calculator, the notepad and converter are workplace favourites and the games and music make sure that there is enough entertainment.

and the camera? To most people, the phone records their happiest moments down the memory lane.

Lets flip over to the other side of the coin.

The cell phone is a big distraction, be it the workplace, while driving or at school, to name a few. The constant beeps of messages and the irritating seem inescapable.

Not only the good information, even illegal information is being transmitted over the cell phone network. One must remember that like the common folk, even criminals use their mobiles to their advantage, which is again the community's disadvantage.

The cell phones are also compromising on our safety. They allow easy tracking and access to personal information.
The energy sucked by mobile chargers are also harmful to the overall ecosystem.

Health is another major concern. The WHO has already listed the cell phone as a carcinogen, ie. a cancer causing agent. The eardrums and eyes are most affected due to the blaring sounds and the bright display. And not to mention those millions of disease causing microbes on the phone.

Last, but not the least are the rising costs of the mobile bills. One has to pay them, and often it increases the estimation of a monthly budget.

I conclude that using a cell phone is good, but only when really necessary. The unnecessary use of phones should be avoided due to the health and other risk factors.

Globalisation: The cell phone factor.

Globalisation is the process of collaboration and amalgamation between different cultural groups, driven by trade,investment and the advancement of technology.But how exactly did mobile technology enable globalisation? 

About 60% of the world's population owns a mobile phone.

 A farmer here in India can now easily talk to his daughter who has just moved to the United States.

 Mobile phones have helped in expanding the productive opportunities of certain types of activities by enhancing social networks, reducing risks associated with employment seeking, and enabling freelance service work. One gets to travel to places without the tension of going untraced, and lost. The inbuilt features of most phones have a GPS tracking system and the various Social Networking Sites have also exploited this palm gadgets for their own benefit; Twitter belongs more to the phone than a traditional PC or a now old fashioned Laptop.

Transforming and reinforcing the social and economic ties of micro-entrepreneurs and making local economies more efficient is also due to the cell phones.Famous micro-entrepreneurs started designing cell phone apps at a young age, most often with a meagre bank balance.

 Businesses have thrived due to the on-move-features the mobile phones offer; a pizza is just a call away.  But just a minute; isn't pizza Italian food? Mobiles have been extending their capabilities to entrepreneurship, banking, e-learning, and health delivery systems. 

Today the news of the world around us is in our pocket; our younger generation know Candy Crush Saga before knowing what table tennis or squash is; and the mobile phone number is known by heart, even though they're a bit confused about their house address.

 

                                      

CELL PHONES - A REVOLUTION IN THE HISTORY OF INDIA'S ECONOMY

The transformation of the mobile phone from yuppie plaything to a tool that drives economic growth in the developing world (read India) is arguably the biggest technology story of the first decade of the 21st century. The mobile revolution that is taking place in India is part of a larger global phenomenon. Use of mobile phones has already eclipsed use of conventional “fixed” telephones which in more than a century never exceeded a global penetration of 20

percent. Today, India is the world’s fastest growing cellular phone market, with an annual compounded growth rate of 42 percent since 2002.

Financially too, the telecom sector in India has shown positive results. Gross revenues for

the sector have grown at a compounded annual rate of 21 percent since 2002 and currently

stand at US$20 billion. This accounts for about two percent of the GDP.Further, the sector has attracted significant domestic and international investments. In

March 2008, the country added another 10.16 million mobile subscribers, bringing the total

to 261 million. This meant that India had become the second largest mobile market in the world, trailing only China.A number of earlier studies have examined the relationship between

telecommunication services and economic growth. There is a positive relationship between GDP per capita and telephone density indicators.India’s telecom story is a shining testament to how policy clarity, political conviction for reforms and private entrepreneurship can deliver outcomes, within a decade, that government intervention and well-intentioned bureaucratic thinking cannot even conceive of.

And within a span of few years, we are far away from the days when if you picked up your phone, there was no guarantee that you would get a dial tone; if you got a dial tone and dialed a number, there was no guarantee that you would reach the number you sought, and you heard an exasperated "wrong number!" more often than a friendly "hello."

10 mesures de précaution contre les effets nocifs du téléphone portable   (FRENCH)

1. Ne pas autoriser les enfants de moins de 12 ans à utiliser un téléphone portable sauf en cas d'urgence.

2. Quand des communications, essayer  maintenir le téléphone à plus d'1 m du corp. Utiliser dés que possible le mode "haut-parleur".

3. Rester à plus d'un mètre de distance d'une personne en communication.

4.  Eviter d'utiliser le telephone cellulaire lorsque la force du signal est faible ou quand on voyager en voiture ou en train.

5. Communiquer par SMS au lieu de par telephone.

Environmental effects of cell phones

No proper disposal of cell phones
According to Worldwatch Institute, users discard cell phones after an average that is less than a year. The environmental protection agencies observe that lead, mercury and cadmium found in personal electronic devices such as mobile phones can "release dangerous toxins into our air and water when burned or deposited in landfills improperly." In these situations, there can be significant environmental impact. Many agencies worldwide report that ecosystems near point sources of lead often demonstrate biodiversity loss, decreased growth and reproductive rates, and neurological effects in vertebrates.



Toxic Impact On Humans

The Environmental Protection Agency also notes the environmental hazards posed by discarded cell phone components where electronic waste finally comes to rest. According to the EPA, lead taken into the body through the air, through contaminated groundwater or lead-contaminated food can accumulate in human bones. It can adversely affect "the nervous system, kidney function, immune system, reproductive and developmental systems, and the cardiovascular system." It can cause significant risk to young children even at low levels; exposure to infants and young children can contribute to learning deficits and lowered IQ.

Fact:Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.
               So why should we not recycle?

Cell phones pose a serious burden on the environment, gobbling up power and precious materials before heading to landfill. 

How Much Power Do Cell Phones Use?

Phones and their batteries are getting more efficient. But charging them still sucks a lot of electricity from the grid. Last year, one researcher estimated that each charger uses around 0.01-0.05 kWh per day; over a year, that's the equivalent of a skipping a single bath (5 kWh per person), or driving 6 minutes less annually (average driver being 40 kWh per day).

We've just entered the era of solar-powered phones, but until the technology gets more efficient, it's unclear if such phones are sustainable.

Possible Dangers of Cell Phone Towers

The possible dangers of cell phone towers are wide-reaching and numerous. The chronic exposure to cellular radiation has some harmful effects as well. And the health effects are not only restricted to humans. A study conducted by the Institute of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy of the Veterinary School of Hanover (Germany) found that dairy cows were effected by their proximity to cell phone tower sites. The cows had reduced milk production and increased behavioral abnormalities. 

In September of 2010, the environment ministry of India established a 10-member committee under Bombay Natural History Society to study the impact of cellphone towers on birds and bees. The group of experts reviewed 919 studies performed in India and abroad regarding the effects of cellphone towers on birds, insects, animals, wildlife, and humans. The study showed the negative impact of mobile towers on birds, bees, humans, wildlife and plants . The experts even cited an international study that pinpointed cellphone towers as a potential cause in the decline of animal populations . They went on to say that there was an urgent need to focus more scientific attention on the subject before it was too  late.

But there can be issues even with shorter structures where there are large concentrations of birds, especially in bad weather. Most of the birds that migrate by dark fly at heights of 500 to 3,000 feet, making a collision with the tower unlikely, but strong headwinds and poor weather can cause the birds to fly at lower altitudes that could put them on a collision course with the cell phone towers. Thousands of migrating birds perish due to the collision.

                                                              Cellular Technology

Cellular Technology refers to a wide range of technologies for transmitting voice and/or data over a cellular network. Implementations include 

• GSM/GPRS
•  CDMA
•  HSDPA, and other technologies.

Cellular technology is the technology used for cellular communication.This technology is widely used in applications such as remote data collection, remote voice communication, and other mobile or remote devices. The increasing capabilities of cellular devices are allowing this technology to be integrated into more applications. Since the start of this millennium, a standard mobile device has gone from being no more than a simple two-way pager to being a mobile phone, GPS navigation device, an embedded web browser and instant messaging client, and a handheld game console. Many experts argue that the future of computer technology rests in mobile computing with wireless networking. Mobile computing by way of tablet computers are becoming more popular.

                  

Cellular technology  is based on radio technology that was developed from the 1940’s onward. For instance, the beginning of cell phones can be traced to the innovations in taxi cabs & police cars where radios allowed taxi drivers or police officers to communicate with one another or with a central base.

The Swedish police used the first official mobile phone in 1946. The phone was not very practical as it could only make 6 phone calls before the car’s battery was drained.

 Later on, another engineer from Bell Labs came up with the idea of cell towers. However, although some technologies had been developed, electronics and other technologies take decades to mature. For instance, the electronics that were used in the first cell phones were first developed in the 1960’s.

By 1967, mobile phone technology was available but the user had to stay within an area.While the technology had been developed, it  took more than 10 years for an approval.

Throughout the decades, many technologies that made mobile phones available existed. These phones were installed in vehicles due to the large battery requirements. 

In 1983, Motorola unveiled the first truly portable cellular phone to the world.The DynaTAC800X was extremely lightweight for its time and only weighed about 28 ounces.

Cellular phones from the early 1990s are considered second generation (2G) . 2G mobile phones use digital circuit switched transmissions. This enabled quicker network signalling, lowering the amount of dropped calls and increasing call quality.

Phones based on 2G technology were much smaller than the brick telephones of the mid to late 80s. Most 2G cellular phones were usually in the range of 100 to 200 grams, plus they were hand held devices that were truly portable and did not need a large battery. Advances in battery and computer chip technology also helped to make 2G cell phones much smaller than their predecessors. With these innovations, cell phone use soared.

Third Generation cellular phones is the technology that is currently available and it is commonly referred to as 3G. While 3G came only a few years after 2G, mainly due to many innovations in technology and services, standards for 3G are usually different depending on the network.

 There are two main requirements: they include 2 Megabits of maximum data rate indoors and 384 kbits for outdoor use. 3G mobile phones usually include innovations to receive much more than phone calls. For instance, SMS text is available and some 3G phones also offer email and Internet access. Technologies are continuing to improve and new innovations such as streaming radio, TV, as well as Wifi are currently breaking into the market.

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