Mobile phones are becoming a popular device to reach out to target population worldwide.

In this post, Mobiles for health – American Style, Corinne Ramey gives three examples of how mobile phones are used in America to  reach out for target population for health related information.

1. Case 1: In the state of Georgia, mobile phones are being used to monitor the health of diabetes patients. The study participants sent glucose readings and photos of the meals they ate. Professor Elizabeth Mynatt, director of GVU Center of the Georgia Institute of Technology said, “You can ask people what they have for breakfast, and it sounds healthy, but then you see the proportions on the plate, and not so much.”

2. Case 2: Internet Sexuality Information Services, Inc (ISIS), a California-based nonprofit focused on sexual health has been using text messaging campaigns such as SEXINFO and HOOKUP for providing sexual health-related information to people.

3. In Phoenix, Arizona, which is the ninth-most ozone polluted city in America, residents are using mobile phones to keep track of air quality. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) sends out “high pollution” alerts to its 900 text message subscribers.

In Africa, Katrin Verclas writes in her post “Rapid Response, a m-health Platform” that a m-health platform on RapidSMS has been developed for the Millennium Villages Project with support from the UNICEF Innovation Group. The program is used by health care providers in the field to facilitate and coordinate activities through SMS text messages.

Although these articles were published in June 2002, I think they provide some interesting insights into mobile phone usage among youth in different countries. In this post, I present some key points:

What does mobile phone mean for young people?

1. Adoption of mobile phones among youth generally takes places as a gift from parents. When gifting a teenager, it could also be considered as a transition from childhood to adolescence. Richard Ling calls this as “initiation rites”.

2. The shrinking size of present day families explain why the youth today feel the need to communicate with virtual brothers and sisters (Fortunati, 2002).

3. It is privacy and not mobility that matters. Most youth have cell phone conversations in their bedroom.

4. Mobile phones fulfill two important needs among youngsters – identity and communication. Youngsters use mobile phones to create their own identity – they move away from “hopelessly old-fashioned” parents (Richard Ling). Also they “personalize” the mobile device through covers, ringtones, colors, and various decorations to express their identity. Hence mobile device becomes an extension of the body rather than a prosthesis. Secondly, communication through mobile phone fulfills their need to build their social structure made of values, norms and behavior.

5. Mobile phones help fulfill the need for buidling “social and emotional ties” which are missing in a non-communicated society. (Hoffler and Rossler, Germany)

6. Mobile phone communication mostly takes place with those who live around the corner and it prepares further face-to-face contacts.

Parental behavior towards mobile phone

1. Richard Ling calls mobile phone as a “digital leash” or a “magic helper”.

2. Leslie Haddon talk of “bedroom culture” where parents prefer the children call from their bedroom rather than outdoors.

3. Leopoldina Fortunati and Anna Maria Manganelli point to an interesting paradox – parents think they are in control of their children, whereas children think they are free from parents.

These points indicate how the mobile phones are fulfilling age-related needs and redefining parent-child relationships.