mpact on society[edit]

Human health[edit]
Main article: Mobile phone radiation and health

Since the introduction of mobile phones, concerns (both scientific and public) have been raised about the potential health impacts from regular use.
[33]
But by 2008, American mobile phones transmitted and received more text messages than phone calls.[34] Numerous studies have reported no
significant relationship between mobile phone use and health, but the effect of mobile phone usage on health continues to be an area of public
concern.[citation needed]

For example, at the request of some of their customers, Verizon created usage controls that meter service and can switch phones off, so that children
could get some sleep.[34] There have also been attempts to limit use by persons operating moving trains or automobiles, coaches when writing to
potential players on their teams, and movie theater audiences.[34] By one measure, nearly 40% of automobile drivers aged 16 to 30 years old text while
driving, and by another, 40% of teenagers said they could text blindfolded.[34]

18 studies have been conducted on the link between cell phones and brain cancer; A review of these studies found that cell phone use of 10 years or
more "give a consistent pattern of an increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma".[35] The tumors are found mostly on the side of the head that the
mobile phone is in contact with. In July 2008, Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, warned about the
radiation from mobile phones. He stated that there was no definitive proof of the link between mobile phones and brain tumors but there was enough
studies that mobile phone usage should be reduced as a precaution.[36] To reduce the amount of radiation being absorbed hands free devices can be
used or texting could supplement calls. Calls could also be shortened or limit mobile phone usage in rural areas. Radiation is found to be higher in
areas that are located away from mobile phone towers.[37]

According to Reuters, The British Association of Dermatologists is warning of a rash occurring on people's ears or cheeks caused by an allergic
reaction from the nickel surface commonly found on mobile devices’ exteriors. There is also a theory it could even occur on the fingers if someone
spends a lot of time text messaging on metal menu buttons. In 2008, Lionel Bercovitch of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and his
colleagues tested 22 popular handsets from eight different manufacturers and found nickel on 10 of the devices.[38]

Human behaviour[edit]
Culture and customs[edit]

Cellular phones allow people to communicate from almost

anywhere at their leisure.
Between the 1980s and the 2000s, the mobile phone has gone from being an expensive item used by the business elite to a pervasive, personal
communications tool for the general population. In most countries, mobile phones outnumber land-line phones, with fixed landlines numbering 1.3
billion but mobile subscriptions 3.3 billion at the end of 2007.

In many markets from Japan and South Korea, to Europe, to Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, most children age 8-9 have mobile phones
and the new accounts are now opened for customers aged 6 and 7. Where mostly parents tend to give hand-me-down used phones to their youngest
children, in Japan already new cameraphones are on the market whose target age group is under 10 years of age, introduced by KDDI in February
2007. The USA also lags on this measure, as in the US so far, about half of all children have mobile phones.[39] In many young adults' households it has
supplanted the land-line phone. Mobile phone usage is banned in some countries, such as North Korea and restricted in some other countries such as
Burma.[40]

Given the high levels of societal mobile phone service penetration, it is a key means for people to communicate with each other. The SMS feature
spawned the "texting" sub-culture amongst younger users. In December 1993, the first person-to-person SMS text message was transmitted in
Finland. Currently, texting is the most widely used data service; 1.8 billion users generated $80 billion of revenue in 2006 (source ITU). Many phones
offer Instant Messenger services for simple, easy texting. Mobile phones have Internet service (e.g. NTT DoCoMo's i-mode), offering text messaging
via e-mail in Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Most mobile internet access is much different from computer access, featuring alerts, weather data,
e-mail, search engines, instant messages, and game and music downloading; most mobile internet access is hurried and short.

Because mobile phones are often used publicly, social norms have been shown to play a major role in the usage of mobile phones.[41] Furthermore, the
mobile phone can be a fashion totem custom-decorated to reflect the owner's personality[42] and may be a part of their self-identity.[41] This aspect of the
mobile telephony business is, in itself, an industry, e.g. ringtone sales amounted to $3.5 billion in 2005.[43] Mobile phone use on aircraft is starting to be
allowed with several airlines already offering the ability to use phones during flights. Mobile phone use during flights used to be prohibited and many
airlines still claim in their in-plane announcements that this prohibition is due to possible interference with aircraft radio communications. Shut-off
mobile phones do not interfere with aircraft avionics. The recommendation why phones should not be used during take-off and landing, even on planes
that allow calls or messaging, is so that passengers pay attention to the crew for any possible accident situations, as most aircraft accidents happen on
take-off and landing.

Etiquette[edit]
Main article: Cell Phone Etiquette
Mobile phone use can be an important matter of social d