Mobile Phones - A curse or a boon?

Mobile Phones - A curse or a boon?

Since the beginning of time man has been inventing things; the bike, the car, the radio, the television, the telephone, the computer but the most recent invention to have taken the world by storm has to be the mobile phone. Originally a large, heavy, black box with an even larger protruding aerial, mobile phones were not widely used but today they are a must-have fashion accessory, and with coloured fascias, aerials, covers, logos and ring-tones available, its no surprise that children as young as eight are now asking Santa for an Ericsson PF768 or Motorola Wing Timeport V.550.

With recent advances in technology WAP services have been provided on mobiles and in Japan they have fitted a video camera into the ever decreasing in size hand held phenomena. It is safe to say that mobiles have taken over, making it impossible to travel without hearing a dull-tone version of the number 1 tune blasting in your ear followed by, "Hello? I'm on the train!"

There are many stories of lives being saved when someone suffers a heart attack whilst in the middle of nowhere and the victim is rescued because their companion rang the emergency services on their mobile. This is one reason why so many people own mobiles - security. The young and old are reassured that by owning a mobile, help can be on its way in the touch of a button if an emergency situation were to crop up.

However, owning a mobile may increase your chances of being mugged. Recent figures have shown that street crime is up by nearly 50% with most muggers stealing mobiles, and with the average pay as you go package costing