My biggest takeaway from the article “Exploration of the forms of mobile phone attachment among traders in Ghana” was how when people think of mobile phone addiction, they instantly think of today’s youth.
Their minds go towards that cliché of the group of teenagers out to eat together and they are all on their mobile phones and not communication with one another. When this situation is brought up, everyone thinks youth, but that just is not the truth.
Older people love to make fun of the younger generations for their addiction to their mobile phones, but I think they only do it to make themselves feel less self-conscience about their uncontrollable addictions. That situation I described above is as common with the older generation as it is with the younger one.
The article does a study on the working population in Africa and their relationships with their mobile phone.
Although everyone is addicted to their smartphones, what they are being used for differs for everyone. Amongst the youth it is all about consuming content and understanding what their friends are up to. Within this study, it discusses the different reasons as to why the working class would be addicted to their phones.
For a lot of them, communication keeps them stuck in their phones. The ability to communicate with anyone at any time allows them to stay up to date makes it so work is a never-ending thing. Not only does communication keep them indulged in work, but it keeps them up to date with their families as well.
A couple examples focused on the power of Skype and WhatsApp to keep families close even when the separation is hundreds of miles. As special as this ability is, it forces you to be stuck to your phone and not present where your feet are.
Another example came from a thirty-seven-year-old mother who had to hide her usage from her kids because she did not want them to see the device or how much she uses it. She knows the affect it could have on her kids, and she does not want her kids to generate a relationship with electronics like hers.
A level of addiction for a twenty-two-year-old reached a point where she could not resist from her phone for the duration of her interview for this article.
The different levels of phone addiction are always problematic. Whether they come from positive or negative uses of the phone, all forms of addiction are an issue.
The lack of presence on today’s world is a major red flag. People are more invested in the virtual world then where
they stand.
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