It is obvious that most people cannot live without mobile phones in Hong Kong. It is therefore safe to say that most people are in favor of them. However, as an exercise in persuasive writing, your English teacher wants you to write any essay that criticizes the use of mobile phones.
Your essay should include at least three negative effects of using mobile phones. You may consider discussing problems that the phones bring to their users, the people around the users, and society in general, or you can develop your own arguments.
Mobile phones, one of the greatest inventions in recent decades, have grown in popularity in the whole world and are already, one of the indispensable gadgets people carry with all the time. With swift technological advancements, functions of these small devices improve with giant strides. Despite the apparent convenience and goodness of using mobile phones, there are in fact a number of observable drawbacks which ought not to go unnoticed.
In the first place, users of mobile phones may suffer various physical damage to their bodies. Radiation from the cell phone is one well-known and truly strong harm which brings detrimental effect to human brains. There was one shocking experiment online demonstrating the ‘power’ of phone radiation, in which a raw egg was cooked after being placed between two mobile phones which were in chatting mode for half an hour. Just imagine it is a human brain next to the phone this time, for one hour or two. What sort of destruction does the brain suffer?
Posture, at the same time, is another aspect in which mobile phones exhibit their physical power, the undesirable one though. Prolonged conversations on mobile phone require a hand to hold the gadget apart from the ear, leading to muscle fatigue easily. Worse still, some may attempt to save a hand by pressing the phone firmly between the shoulder and the head. And just imagine one bending his neck for an hour or more every day. It is indeed unimaginable!
Besides radiation and poor posture, one’s hearing may be undermined after long-term use of mobile phones, as sounds can only be collected through one of the ears creating unbalanced receptions all the time, especially in clamorous locations where phone volume is made high. The ear responsible for picking up the phone is vulnerable to the loss of hearing, which is a potential danger which is worth our attention. It is thus evident that the use of mobile phones puts people at great risk of being physically harmed.
Secondly, mobile phones do bring about, apart from physical ones, mental health problems to users. This multi-functional widget helps put friends or family at a mere one-finger distance, which should be beneficial to the public. Nonetheless, due to its advanced convenience, youngsters develop over-reliance on it, testified by teenagers sending SMS or making unnecessary calls, no matter on bus or MTR, just because they have nothing else to do. As a result, adolescents may stick to their cell phones all day, hindering face-to-face interactions and giving rise to the physical effects to body.
More than problems with individuals, the use of mobile phones comes as a nuisance to people around. Nowadays, the variety of ringtones flourishes, attributed to fact-paced growth in technology, ranging from classical music to the theme song of Doraemon, and to words scolding people. While it may still be a pleasant experience to hear some hit songs, scolding is very unlikely to be so. Even worse than noisy ringtones, loud chats on cell phones in public areas are truly annoying. Especially in crowded areas such as MTR compartments and bus stations, phone users, perhaps unwillingly, have to shout their words for effective transmission to the other end. Some ‘radical’ people even fill their sentences with swear words, forcing those around to hear those shameful words. With people being unable to close their ears, the frequent use of mobile phones simply creates disturbance to everyone around.
Affecting also a wider scope than individuals and surrounding people, use of mobile phones brings harm to society as well. The modern phones consist of different functions, and have better and better cameras especially. More and more criminals have been caught using mobile phones to take candid pictures, using the device as disguise for their evil purpose. The trend of chasing after new models of mobile phones also gets intensified among Hongkongers, giving rise to serious obsession or even large amounts of debts of people. The atmosphere of misusing mobile phones or getting themselves into trouble due to cell phone obsession is worsening, affecting the whole society severely.
In conclusion, in spite of the benefits, the use of mobile phones bring physical as well as mental problems to individuals, people around users, and the whole society at the same time. It is essential to reduce the use of the gadget, so as to lesson detrimental effects and maintain people’s health and a positive society!