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Feature

Cell phones: a must-have or not a must-have thing for the youth?

Sabrina Hasan Shoily

What comes to your mind if I ask you: 'tell me about a device that's always with you, and you can't leave home without it; you need it while sleeping… studying…and even while taking shower?'

It's your cell phone! Yes…correct answer! This tiny piece of technology has made life much easier than before. Nowadays, everyone owns (or wants to own ) one cell phone, at least. I hear my 11-12 year-old cousins telling their dads: 'I don't mind if I don't get a birthday cake this time, but please give me a cell phone. All my friends have it, why can't I?'All these made me stop for a second and wonder, what is it about cell phones that has been mesmerizing us-the youths? How have we been accepting and using this technology? Are cell phones helping or ruining us?

Looking at the negative side, cell phones create disturbance in many occasions. Imagine sitting in a milad mahfil when all of a sudden someone's phone starts ringing in an annoying tune, or worse, it starts yelling: 'Jorina, o jorina, phone ta dhoro'! starts ringing. Nothing can be more embarrassing than that.

Cell phones have made 'telling lies' a sophisticated art! You have dumped your office and are sitting with your girlfriend around Dhanmondi Lake, when your boss rings for an emergency, you say that you are 'stuck in a traffic jam in Mohakhali that will not loosen before an hour'… You have no guilty feelings at all. Why? Because of your cell phone.

Cell phones are causing the greatest problems in relationships. I would call it a 'massive threat'. Youngsters own 3-4 sim cards from different mobile companies and are using these to maintain 3-4 relations! And what about the boys and girls who keep maintaining 'equally devoted romantic' relationships with many counterparts? Do we call this love? Or should we?

Then talk of flirting. Most of the young boys and girls today flirt a lot over the phone. Imagine a young boy, upon seeing a pretty girl, managing to have her phone number and giving her continuous missed calls and SMS-s for few days…and if by any chance the girl responds even once, the boy thinks that she is in 'love' with him! So queer!

Then there is the eternal problem of receiving text messages like 'I love (read: lubh) you!' or 'I want to friendship with you!' Absolutely irritating, isn't it?

However on the positive frame of thinking, we are bound to find many advantages of cell phones. It is the fastest and the most efficient way to keep in touch with family and friends. Parents are no longer worried about their children being late. They can always call them and make sure that everything is all right.

Then, cell phones have made acquiring information extremely easy. One can know the daily national and international news, schedules of bus, train and plane and even the O'Level/A'Level or SSC/HSC results through SMS. Something unthinkable even a few days back!

What about communication? Students can communicate with their teachers and friends very easily. Addafying has taken a totally new turn in the lives of the youth by the arrival of cell phones. Multiple users keep talking to each other at the same time via SMS chat and conference-a concept that was deemed 'madness' even a few years back. People are being introduced to new people and thus their friends' network is rapidly expanding.

So after all these, what can be said about cell phones is: doubtlessly, it is an integral part of our life now. Despite all its disadvantages, we cannot part from it. This technological advancement has surely made life easy, but how we utilise this technology is absolutely up to us. Whether to call it a blessing or a curse is for you to decide individually. Well, all good and evil related to man-made things are subject to personal intelligence and judgement, aren't they?