Teens, phones and addiction

“I have seen students,” a high school teacher here sighed, “who made nonsensical excuses to leave school early on days when they forgot to carry their cell phones to school.” A middle-school student in Seoul carries two cell phones, and a backup battery for each. It’s not that she’s a junior tycoon, she says, but just that it’s important to her to always be in touch. "Once I left both of them at home, and was nervous the whole day because I couldn't answer calls and text messages immediately," she said. [viaJoongAng Daily]

Exceptional cases? Perhaps, but a recent study said that nearly half of Korea's teenagers are addicted to their mobile phones. A survey of 1,100 youths aged 14 to 19, conducted in Seoul by the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion, an arm of the Ministry of Communication, said that four out of 10 students send and receive text messages during class and that the same proportion sends more than 1,000 text messages a month.

A third reported jangled nerves when they forget to carry their cell phone. A fifth even said they kept their cell phone next to them while bathing. The little instruments are not just a way to communicate, it seems; they are a part of their owner's psyche."

emily | 4:59 PM | SMS and Students |
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