Mobile – The Next Pulse of Youth

The relationship between youth and their mobiles is not necessarily based on being fun, cool, or entertaining?. It’s a key social tool employed in the dynamics of the peer group. Youth consume mobile products – as they do others – to make statements about themselves and their relationship with their peers.
Self-expression is such a key aspect of young people’s lives that they would rarely choose a non-branded alternative over an identifiable brand. 98% of teens for example would choose a brand/logo designed T-shirt over a plain one.
Mobile is most importantly a symbol of belonging to a group, both as a physical product (you must own a phone to be part of our group) and its communicative possibilities: texting is essential to youth not because of the content (very limited) of the texts themselves but because each text is a reaffirmation and a reminder that we are part of this World!
How is the mobile phone changing the lives of teenagers? A pretty broad question! I think it’s fair to say that it allows youth to remain hyper-connected at all times, to the extent that 14% of US mobileYouth surveyed admitted that they couldn’t live without their phones. Other surveys point to the fact that an increasing number of young people are being admitted to clinics as “text-addicts”. Overall, youth may be building up a dependency on mobiles which have increasingly become a sign of social status and self-esteem: many have also admitted that they feel depressed if they pass a whole day without receiving a text!

Where will the rising mobile waves take us?

Unfortunately last week I lost my mobile on a wedding. Although this is the fourth time i have lost my mobile but this one simply shook me.I just felt that there was something ” BIG” missing from my life. After gathering myself from the depressed situation, I really wanted to know why have we become so dependent on it!
Mobile has completely changed the way we work, socialise and live our lives.My intriguing nature forced me to actually find out more about this phenomenal change in our lives.
You will be surprised to know that in 2006, nearly 950 million handsets have been sold all around the world, while in 2007, this figure is expected to pass the one billion mark. UK has 60 million mobile phone users whereas Europe has the world’s largest mobile handset market, with over 144 million sold last year.
According to international research by LogicaCMG, world demand for mobile downloads is set to triple in the next 12 months, creating a €7.6 billion global market for mobile content.This substantial market for mobile content has opened up great opportunities for mobile operators worldwide.
Aside from ringtones and SMS, music, gaming, TV and information are the big four content segments opening up right now.Mobile music spending will be approximately $6.4 billion in 2009, a 33.9 per cent compound annual increase.
Mobile is no longer a chatting device, and we can call it a small PC now.The power of mobile communications just keeps on getting greater and greater and inturn has made us more and more dependent on these devices.