Mobile phones first hit the market as luxury items, with only representatives of a very limited circle of affluent Ukrainians boasting them. With time, when the majority became aware of their pragmatic rather than social role, the ranks of phone owners expanded as did the number of mobile communications companies, the trailblazers of this now fashionable line of business in Ukraine. Store shelves are crammed not only with brand new and rather expensive mobile phones, but also with secondhand ones, and Ukrainian pickpockets have discovered a new and easy prey. It has become possible for crooks to make money by enabling phones blocked by seller companies and improving them by installing additional functions and games. In a short time, Ukrainians have found themselves hooked on the mobile phone frenzy.
Our compatriots were not the only exception. A study undertaken in Great Britain indicates that infatuation with mobile phones can be compared to a craving for tobacco or other hazardous habits. As confirmed by the latest research, with the young dependence on mobile phones tends to replace addiction to cigarettes, with advertising being the only seemingly logical reason in this case as it gives the young a feeling that the presence of a ringing phone in their pockets puts them one step above their age group. Manager of the Internet Expert ad agency Maksym Krainiev told The Day that many mobile communications companies have tailored their advertising campaigns to the needs of young clients by using the techniques most appropriate for teenagers. Placing ads on the Internet proved to be most effective, with the young extensively exposed to mobile communications when roaming the World Wide Web.
However, psychologists believe that the mobile phone frenzy is only a partial tribute to modern age, indicating rather the loneliness in a big city. In the opinion of candidate in psychology Iryna Holovniova, a mobile phone is an item which makes an individual feel one’s significance, with a large number of calls attesting one’s wide circle of acquaintances and social importance. According to statistics, 32% of men coming to a public place put their mobile phones in some conspicuous place, trying to use them all the time. Interestingly, with women this syndrome is seen only half as much. Psychologists say that this pattern of male’s behavior indicates their desire to attract attention and stress their masculinity. Iryna Holovniova also believes that mobile phones allow people to identify themselves with items of inorganic nature, that is, a telephone becomes a thing vital to one’s existence because it can save a person from the feeling of isolation.
Now approximately every twentieth Ukrainian has one of the five essential symbols indicating a person’s image. However, many foreign medical experts consider mobile phones a health hazard. As shown by a study in The Lancet medical journal, children using mobile phones risk developing amnesia, sleeping problems, and headaches. Physicist Gerald Highland warns against the risks of exposure to radiation coming from mobile phones, noting that children under eighteen, or a quarter of Great Britain’s mobile phones users, have become more vulnerable because their immune systems are weaker than those in their age group who do not use mobile phones. The negative impact of low level radiation resembles radio interference, affecting body cells stability. Other researchers agree that the electromagnetic radiation of mobile phones affects brain tissue, although it has not been proven that it is detrimental to human health. Highland, however, still believes that the real threat comes from low level radiation commonly known as non-thermal.
Most Ukrainian medical experts disagree with such pessimistic assessments, arguing that any technology is hazardous to the organism. Despite the radiation emanating from televisions, computers, and microwave ovens, it would make no sense to stop using them. To date, mobile phones have become accessible to middle-income Ukrainians, as a ride in any commercial shuttle can easily show. If the beautiful gadgets can help combat juvenile smoking, their impact on health is more positive than negative.
