July 23, 2006
Women use mobiles to deter chat-ups
Men, take the hint. When a woman clamps a mobile phone to her ear, or sits ostentatiously typing a text at a bar, chances are that the real message is intended for you: stay away. The Guardian reports.
"Women are now using the mobile phone as a barrier signal, or 'personal bodyguard', to deter overly keen men from trying a chat-up line, according to a major study of the way the mobile phone is changing the way we interact.
"Women are using mobile phones as a symbolic bodyguard, in the way that they used to use a newspaper or magazine as a psychological barrier to deter people from approaching them,' said Fox, author of Watching the English.
Mobile Life, one of the most comprehensive studies of mobile-phone use in Britain, will be published tomorrow by Carphone Warehouse, in collaboration with the London School of Economics."
Sprint released it's own "Women in a Wireless World" survey this week for the US market and mobiledia picked up on one important fact that came up: women would rather personalize their cell phones than their hairstyles.
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