The Cellphone Age

Can anyone remember what it was like not to have a cellphone? It seems like a distant memory and as much as I love my cellphone, as I'm sure many of you do, I tend to imagine a simpler life from a simpler time. When walking into a shop and considering what to buy wasn't interrupted by the nokia ringtone. If you didn't want to talk to someone, you could use the excuse, "I was out". Instead we live in an age that is allowing us to be available anywhere, anytime.

A recent survey conducted in South Africa shows that people feel they CAN NOT live without their cellphone. Our little black boxes are firmly ingratiated into our everyday lives and we cannot even begin to imagine what life was like before, many of us don't want to. Understandably, cellphones have become a safety net, when that tyre bursts on the highway, you can call someone to help you. When you want to access your favorite social networking site facebook, it's inches away from reach and prevents you from turning on the computer. It's all about ease, comfort and ultimately entertainment.

Here are the statistics, interesting to say the least:

The highest dependency was among people aged from 25 to 34, at 91%, followed by those aged 16 to 24 and then the over 50s.

most people never left home without their cellphones, even keeping them next to their beds, or not far away while they slept.

Of the people interviewed, 82% owned one phone and 16% two. Ownership of two phones was more popular among Indians and whites. Only 2% reported having more than two cellphones.

Just over half of the people interviewed - particularly the youth - felt it would be more difficult to replace their cellphones than their wallets.

The survey found that apart from using their phones for calls, most people used them as alarm clocks, cameras, to download music and play games.

The survey found that two-thirds of people interviewed had used their cellphones to SMS a difficult message or to say no to something, and that only slightly fewer had lied in SMSes about where they were or why they were running late. A third had set up first dates using SMSes, while nearly half had flirted via SMS. Almost a third had broken up with someone by SMS - more of them men than women.