How have Cell Phones changed Bhutanese Society?

RABSEL

Worrying media reports on young child’s use of mobile phones have led to this study of children under eight years in educated Bhutanese homes in Trashigang, Bhutan. This study examines parents’ perspective on their children’s exposure to and use of mobile devices at home. This case study is based on qualitative and quantitative research. The findings reveal that all the children had access to various mobile technologies and parents’ perspective on the use of mobile technology by their children is positive. Further studies are required to check the specific screen time and content watched by the children with future recommendations for families on the use of mobile devices used by the young children

Acta Scientific Paediatrics

Background: In Bhutan, young people have dramatically increased their use of mobile phones. It has been discovered to have favorable impacts on young entrepreneurs in Phuentsholing and cheese and butter traders in distant Sakteng. However, not all youths in the kingdom are affected in the same way by cell phones. Mobile phones have made life easy and inexpensive for teenagers to contact friends and access information [31]. However, the strong social setting in Bhutanese family lives has been destroyed by the widespread availability of information and the introduction of mobile phones. This study examines how mobile phones affect teens in Trashi Yangtse from the views of parents who have frequent interactions with children. Objectives: This study was conducted to actually find out the impacts on of mobile phones on teenagers of Trashi Yangtse from the perspectives of parents. It was carried out to • Understand the teenagers' mobile phone usage in Trashi Yangtse; • Comprehend the impact of mobile texting messages on the communication and proper language skills of teenagers and • Evaluate the physical safety aspects and psychological effects of excessive mobile usage by teenagers. Methods: Quantitative method was employed to explore the research problem. The data was collected through questionnaires (13 closed questions). The questionnaires were handed out to teenager's parents in Trashi Yangtse in five different locations. The respondents had teenager's from13 to 19 years old and they were broadly divided into seven ethnic groups. 44 parents had filled in the questionnaires and handed over to researcher personally while 36 parents emailed the filled in questionnaires. Results: This study focused on the understanding the impact of mobile phones from parents' perspective. The findings from this study revealed that the parents' perception about the use of mobile phones by teenagers in Trashi Yangtse are significantly geared towards having immense negative impacts. The findings are briefly mentioned below: • Happiness rate of parents: 58.8% of parents mentioned that they were 'Unhappy' to find their teenagers using mobile phones. • Safety of teenagers with mobile phones: The results revealed that cumulatively 73.8% of teenagers' parents felt 'Unsafe' and 'Very unsafe' to let teenagers use mobile phones by their teenagers. Of all, 87.6% of teenagers' parents felt 'Unsafe' and 'Very unsafe' with teenagers falling under the age category of 15-16 years old. • Loss of proper language skills: The results revealed that the loss of proper language skills was most common in female teenagers. 43.8% of female teenagers' parents revealed that their teenagers have lost proper language skills very much due to text language. And of all, these female teenagers were under the age category of 17-19 years old.

2014

Mobile phones have become the most important and integral part of today"s lifestyle and mobile handset has become a widely recognized consumer artifact. Where the mobile phones have great and huge merits there are also demerits as well. There are also gender differences in mobile phone usage. The primary objective of this article is to show the effect of mobile phones on society and this article clearly show that the mobile phone has a huge effect on people and the way they interact with others.

India is a country of villages. The expansion of new media technologies has been covering Indian villages’ especially mobile phones and smart phones due to its unique features, low price and easy to use nature. Personal Computers and Internet Connections are still out of reach for common people of Indian village. Digital era is not entirely considered digital in the real sense without mobile phones. Mobile phones, internet and new media are the inseparable characteristics of new media and of new digital age. Last two decades are noticeable for the expansion and popularity of Mobile Phones. Mobile phone numbers is like a digital identity number in the digital age. Mobile phones are playing very crucial and unique roles in the life of common people. The popularity and active usage of Mobile phones as a multimedia device is more among youth. Every young hand is now busy on the `touch screens`. The advent of Mobile Communication has altered the old traditional forms and ways of communicating with people. Communication technology is reshaping the social and interpersonal communication. This change is leading new values, new culture. Communication have social hierarchies, cast- structure is nothing but a provision to control social communication. Mobile Communication allows a private and personal channel to transmit and receive messages. Young boys and girls have access to internet and social networking sites only because of Mobile phones.

Mobile phone has become an important part of people’s lifestyles. This research demonstrates the “impact of mobile Phone on the social structure of Gojal”. Inhabitants of Gojal have rapidly embraced mobile phone technology. The use of mobile phone is widening people’s social networks due to ease of contacts similar to internet communication such as email, face book etc. In addition mobile phone has reduced the geographical barriers and has enhanced the ongoing communication and majorly in emergency situations it has been found very obliging. Moreover mobile phone has adversely affected the social norms, values, economy, and education of the youths and also disturbed the family relationships. The major objectives of the study were to determine the variations in social behaviour of individual due to the use of cell phones, to find out the trend of social acceptance of an individual towards cell phones, to find the role of cell phones in bringing people closer, to find the positive and negative impact of cell Phone on male and female of the populations and impact of mobile on the local culture. Therefore to achieve these objectives research design was made of both qualitative and quantitative method. The universe of the study was Upper Gojal Hunza; the sample size of the study was 60. Purposive and convenient methods of non-probability sample were used as sampling techniques. Tools of data collection was questionnaire and interview schedule for primary data while secondary data was collected from books, journals, blogs and other internet sites. The data revealed through analysis that all the respondents were using Mobile Phones. Majority of them were of the view that mobile has been the most essential necessity of life. Most of them were using mobile phone for work; some were using to be in touch with families and friends while several respondents were using it for other purposes. According the findings of the study, majority of the respondents viewed that cell Phone has affected social behavior of the inhabitants of Gojal. It is affecting their academics, professional work and mobile phone has changed parent’s attitude towards their kids and socialization process and the parents spent less time with their kids. It was concluded from the study that the trend of cell phone is increasing among the inhabitants of the area and it has brought people closed and it has increased the flow of information. Along with this, mobile phone has also affected social institutions, the daily activities of Gojal, and the local culture. On the basis of the findings it was recommended that, it is the prime responsibilities of individuals, parents, leadership and village based institutions to look in to the benefits and threats of use of mobile phone. Parents should motivate their children towards studies and healthy activities like sports and other social activities etc. In respect of religion and other political matters, this has adverse affect on the society at large.

The expansion of new media technologies has been covering Indian villages’ especially mobile phones and smart phones due to its unique features, low price and easy to use nature. India is a country of villages. Personal Computers and Internet Connections are still out of reach for common people of Indian village. Digital era is not entirely considered digital in the real sense without mobile phones. Mobile phones, internet and new media are the inseparable characteristics of new media and of new digital age. Last two decades are noticeable for the expansion and popularity of Mobile Phones. Mobile phone numbers is like a digital identity number in the digital age. Mobile phones are playing very crucial and unique roles in the life of common people. The popularity and active usage of Mobile phones as a multimedia device is more among youth. Every young hand is now busy on the `touch screens`. The advent of Mobile Communication has altered the old traditional forms and ways of communicating with people. Communication technology is reshaping the social and interpersonal communication. This change is leading new values, new culture. Communication have social hierarchies, cast- structure is nothing but a provision to control social communication. Mobile Communication allows a private and personal channel to transmit and receive messages. Young boys and girls have access to internet and social networking sites only because of Mobile phones. They do not have personal computers and internet connections but this kind of digital divide is filed by the usage of Mobile Phones. Youth and their mobile phone usage are challenging the traditional restrictions of communication especially young male female interactions. Villages are altered by the instant nature of getting information in their hand in low cost and without any social hierarchies. The research paper will focus the changing nature of communication due to the advent of new communication technology like Mobile Phone its impact on village youth and society. There are both positive and negative sides of the technology. Remote areas are definitely benefitted by mobile communication. Digital future is in the hands of Mobile Communication Networked technology. Mobile Phones are technology for the masses. The paper will explore with techno-deterministic approach to understand its effects. Researcher will seek to look into the digital future with Mobile Phone use.

Until recently, the primary purpose of using cell-phones was for communication and for business transactions. This paper therefore looked into the effects of excessive use of cell-phones on kids and its implication on education and nation building. The kids as used in this paper comprises of children, teenagers and young adults. These are the builder of the nation tomorrow and the ladder to achieving this laudable goal is quality education. This paper discovered that excessive and uncensored use of cell-phones by kids had great effect on their health and academics. The paper therefore recommended that the use of cell-phones by kids should be regulated by parents, teachers and government. Furthermore, the paper opined that there is the need for promoting healthy attitudinal change towards the use of cell-phones, if nation's quest for a great and egalitarian society will be achieved.

Supporting gender equality in the deployment of and access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) involves accepting that gender relations and ICTs within any given community are continuously being shaped by one another. There is a growing body of research on gender and ICTs in the developing world. However, little empirical evidence exists on how certain aspects of gender relations can inºuence the ways that ICTs are perceived and used, framings which can, in turn, reinforce or reshape existing gender norms and practices. This article examines the relationships that exist between gendered access to education and the ways in which mobile phones, ªxed phones, and the Internet are perceived and used in a rural and an urban Bhu-tanese community. The ªndings, organized by levels of literacy, reveal similar patterns in ICT perceptions and use across the two communities.

2016

Today, mobile phone has been penetrated further in social life, lifestyle, and public cultural norms in comparison with computer and internet technologies due to cheap price and ease of use. Accordingly, the main objective of the current research is to analyze the rate of cell phone usage and its consequences between school students in Yazd city (Iran). The present study has been conducted by means of survey method and the given statistical population on all high school students in Yazd city in which the 384 participants were chosen as sample size using multistage clustered sampling technique. The research findings indicate that there is a significant relationship among variable of cell phone vulnerability and academic failure, identity crisis, and family attachment. The results of bivariate regression analysis also indicates that the rate of cell phone use may determine 25.2% of variance of academic failure, 25.9% of variance of identity crisis, and 20.7% of variance of family atta...