I鈥橵E been trying to kick the habit. It鈥檚 been less than two years since I
took it up, but already I鈥檓 finding it difficult to quit. You would think there
were plenty of incentives, such as the sheer expense and the continual media
reports of health risks
(see our special report, p 20). But the decisive issue
for me is the social pressure鈥攑eople tutting on buses and trains, being
forced to stand outside hospitals because of sensitive equipment. On planes, you
have to go without for hours. You are treated like a pariah. And the truth is, I
now find the habit offensive in other people.
So why don鈥檛 I just abandon it? At the risk of sounding like an old smoker,
if you have never been hooked then you just don鈥檛 understand. As soon as I start
thinking about it, the excuses pour out: 鈥淚鈥檝e just had new business cards
printed with my mobile number on, it would be daft to give it up now.鈥� 鈥淲ith the
baby on the way, my wife can reach me wherever I am, and it鈥檚 handy for
飞辞谤办.鈥�
But the main reason I don鈥檛 give up is probably my sense of resignation. In
Britain alone, there are almost 13 million users. That鈥檚 more than there were in
the whole world just nine years ago. And in Finland, 99 per cent of 18 to
24-year-olds now own one. By 2000, one in 12 people worldwide will be hooked.
Mobiles are here to stay.
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Essentially, it now takes only two silicon chips to make a mobile phone. This
means that they could become as prevalent as digital watches. With only two
chips needed, you could put a mobile phone in almost anything. Millions of
pounds are being invested in building wireless infrastructures and microbrowsers
for the next generation of network, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System or UMTS. This broadband network will allow vast quantities of data to be
sent over the airwaves, and will spawn a host of devices that we will be told we
can鈥檛 live without.
Gone are the days when mobile phones were the preserve of yuppies.
Increasingly, it is those at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum who are
being targeted by the mobile phone companies. This trend has recently
accelerated as phone companies push cheap 鈥減ay as you go鈥� schemes which do away
with the need to be tied into a contract. And why not? Mobile phones shouldn鈥檛
just be a symbol of the elite, they are a godsend to stranded drivers and
travellers who fear for their safety.
But I can鈥檛 help wondering where it is
all leading and what the social consequences will be. When mobile phone
companies in Britain were first issued with licences 12 years ago, it was
predicted that there would be 100 000 users by the end of the century. Because
the predictions proved so wrong, the Digital World Research Centre at the
University of Surrey in Guildford has launched a three-year project, the
Socio-Technical Shaping of Multi-Media Personal Communications, to look into
the use of mobiles in the workplace and in public areas, with an emphasis on
their sociological impact鈥攊ncluding people鈥檚 instinctive resistance to
them.
The latest phones come with voice activation, and some networks are bragging
about how soon their videophones will be available. These developments are
certain to appeal to the gadget fiend, but on a larger scale can we expect to be
deafened by a chorus of fellow commuters dictating their e-mails? And noise
pollution aside, will videophones lead to more car crashes?
Ironically, if it鈥檚 social pressure that makes me want to give up my phone,
it is also social pressure that creates the fear of giving it up. With one in
four British households owning a mobile phone, there seems little point in
quitting. What if everyone thought like that? Well, to quote Joseph Heller, I鈥檇
be a damn fool to think any different.