Mobile Phones and Road Safety Video

This video is a short PSA on why we shouldn't always focus on our phones and the dangers it brings.

Whilst we all contributed to creating the video, the main parts we did individually include:
Bulesa - Driver and provided the car for our video. Also came up with the PSA idea
Cynthia - Brought in the selfie stick for us to record our video with. This made it more stable for us to use. Also brought up the idea of taking a snapchat to make it more relevant for young people
Riana - Willingly sacrificed her body to be covered in dirt and leaves by becoming the 'victim' of our scenario. Ironically, she brought up the idea of someone getting run over by a car because a pedestrian was too negligent.
Maddie - Editor of the video and came up with some of the dialogue for the scenes.

Enjoy!

- All of us at Go Go Gadgets

Mobile phone addiction (nomophobia)

We decided to include a segment for you about mobile phone addiction, for those of you that may or may not be aware of mobile phone addiction. important things to consider are.... how do we know if we are addicted to our mobile phones? what classifies as mobile phone addiction? are there any support networks available for those of us who are addicted to our mobile phones? to what reign does our mobile phone hold over our everyday lives? is mobile phone addiction harmful?

Mobile phone addiction is alive and present, and perhaps maybe more than you would think.

An addiction is when the thing that you are addicted to begins to control your life and interferes with your daily activities, work and even relationships. A common form that may indicate you may be addicted to your mobile phone would include being on or checking your phone, as soon as you wake up in the morning and or before you go to sleep at night. Common signs of addiction include:

• finding yourself texting while driving
• checking your phone instead of working on and important assignment or report
• checking social media sites during a romantic dinner

Heres some astounding facts worth considering:

• 70% said they check their smartphone within an hour of getting up.
• 56% check their phone within an hour of going to sleep.
• 48% check over the weekend, including on Friday and Saturday nights.
• 51% check continuously during vacation.
• 44% said they would experience "a great deal of anxiety" if they lost their phone and couldn't replace it for a week.

How to mobile phone detox

Get real!

when you are with someone in person, and they are engaging with you, it is rude to divert your attention away from them. You may have such thoughts as: "oh but they wont mind" or "I just need to check that" but it is still rude. It reflects poorly upon you and your manners. its time to live in the NOW.

Have some "no phone time" allocated to yourself within the day
Many organisations have now implemented into the scheduale of their employees to take this time out of their day to recharge,  recharge and refresh. yes we understand that some occupations require you to use or be acesssible by phone in the current workforce, however it was discovered that the time away from the phone and to have a "break" from the phone proved to be more beneficial to not only the employee's and their well being but also for overall productivity. This allows focus to stay in tact as well. Take in your surroundings and be in the now.

Have a no phone call and no texting rude in the car
If you have a bluetooth connectivity in your car then its fine to receive phone calls. But text messaging while driving is definately a NO-NO! you put your own health and safety at risk along with others around you on the road. Also playing around with music and apps can also prove to be quiete fatal. This could result in death!

Dont lose sleep over it!
If you find yourself up late at night and checking social media sites, playing with apps, watching videos and or text messaging. and you are jepardizing your 8 hours needed sleep. Then perhaps its time to switch that handset off. You will be suprised how much quicker you fall asleep with no distrations. Your phone is not worth losing sleep over

Health concerns of mobile phone overuse

• Increased levels of stress- with your mind and body remaining under constant stress from frequent checking of phone at short intervals, you attention veers away from work and relationships and ultimately put them under pressure.
• Stress on fingers- as silly as it sounds the constant strain you put on your fingers from constant checking of your mobile phone can result in hand/finger spasms and cramping.
• Insomnia.
• Anxiety- waiting for messages, notifications, phone calls can cause stress and anxiety, especially when you are expected to have an online presence.
• Depression- when you are receiving the attention from your mobile phone that you require and need: " Our minds start to think “why didn’t he/she call me back?“, “why isn’t he replying to me?“, “My friends are busy texting but I am alone“, etc.
• Aggression: we become agile when we are addicted to something and not getting the desired outcome from what we want.

If all else fails, and your addiction is becoming concerning for you or those who care about you there are support networks available such as:

• Therapy or psychiatric help
• Mobile phone rehab

Dont know if your addicted?
Mobile Phone addiction test. Click here*


References:
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/addicted-your-mobile-phone-5-ways-beat-your-phone-addiction.html
http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/addicted-your-smartphone-what-to-do

By Bulesa Dover

10 Fun Mobile phone facts

10 Fun mobile phone facts

On a lighter note we decided to share with you some mobile phone trivia found off the Internet,  these facts range from humble beginnings of the first phone call made to the outrageous studies relating to recharging mobiles through the use of urine! how true or false they actually are, is for you to decide, yet none-the-less definitely worth a read! some of them are even shocking, and even raise some health concerns! we hope you enjoy reading them, as much as we did finding them for you, and don't forget to stay safe, and sanitise :)

1. In 1983, the first mobile phones went on sale in the U.S. at almost $4,000 each
2. Apple sold 340,000 iPhones per day in 2012.
3. Mobile phones have 18 times more bacteria than toilet handles.
4. Scientists have developed a way of charging mobile phones using urine.
5. The first mobile phone call was made in 1973 by Martin Cooper, a former Motorola inventor.
6. Nomophobia is the fear of being without your mobile phone or losing your signal.
7. 100,000 mobile phones are dropped down the toilet in Britain every year.
8. A UN report discovered that more people in the world have mobile phones that toilets.
9. 65% of smartphone users download zero apps per month.
10. Mobile Phone Throwing is an official sport in Finland.

By Bulesa

ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:22:http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/388974/40-years-of-the-mobile-phone-Top-20-facts http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/388974/40-years-of-the-mobile-phone-Top-20-facts ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:22 

ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:23:http://www.cnet.com/news/apples-fiscal-2012-in-numbers-125m-iphones-58-31m-ipads/ http://www.cnet.com/news/apples-fiscal-2012-in-numbers-125m-iphones-58-31m-ipads/ ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:23 

ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:24:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1298057/Mobile-phones-18-times-bacteria-toilet-handle.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1298057/Mobile-phones-18-times-bacteria-toilet-handle.html ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:24 

ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:25:http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-23333533 http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-23333533 ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:25 

ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:26:http://mashable.com/2013/04/03/first-mobile-phone-call/#AIU21S4kqiqO http://mashable.com/2013/04/03/first-mobile-phone-call/#AIU21S4kqiqO ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:26 

ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:27:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-study-nomophobia-mdash-fear-of-being-without-a-mobile-phone/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-study-nomophobia-mdash-fear-of-being-without-a-mobile-phone/ ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:27 

1,227 Quite Interesting Facts to Blow Your Socks Off 1st Edition, by John Lloyd John Mitchinson, James Harkin ISBN-13: 9780393241037

ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:28:http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44452#.VzmCrGNYKRs http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44452#.VzmCrGNYKRs ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:28 

ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:29:http://qz.com/253618/most-smartphone-users-download-zero-apps-per-month/ http://qz.com/253618/most-smartphone-users-download-zero-apps-per-month/ ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:29 

ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:30:http://www.mobilephonethrowing.fi http://www.mobilephonethrowing.fi

Foodies and Phones

Everyone has that one friend that stops you from gorging your food before they whip out their phone to take a million pictures of it. Wait, are you that friend? Don't worry! This isn't a post about bashing foodie photographers. Despite the bad rep foodies get for making everyone halt for that great picture, there are definitely upsides to this trend!

1) Create memories
 Pictures in general are a great way to document memories and events. What better way to document a great meal, catching up with old friends, "food therapy", or a special event than by taking a picture?

2) Introduce people to new venues and cuisines
Visually appealing pictures of food is a great way to introduce new types of food to your friends and family when you upload them on your social media. The prettier the food, the more comments that go along the lines of, "Oh wow, where was this?". There will definitely be more people willing to join you on your next food hunt.

3) Appreciation
Chefs and baristas and the like work hard to plate your food and make them visually appealing to you. By taking that extra 5 minutes before devouring it shows them how much you appreciate their work and effort of going that extra mile in beautifully arranging your food. 

4) Digital food diary
By taking pictures of your food, you would at least remember what you've eaten throughout the week. This will not only help you remember what food you liked the last time you visited the restaurant, but also will help you be more conscious of what you actually put into your body.

5) Practice amateur photography skills
With the release of smartphones with cameras, we no longer need expensive, high-end digital cameras to capture the beauty of things we like. Now we can just take out our mobile phones and go snapping away! With food photography and mobile phones, at the very least we're teaching ourselves how to light the plate of food in an attractive way as well as how to position items on the table to make them pleasing to the eye.

So, if you're against waiting for your foodie friends to be done taking pictures of their food hopefully this will convince you otherwise!  

- Cynthia

Source: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-take-pictures-of-their-food 

Communicating Using Pictures; The Influence of Emojis

Do you know what that means? Hopefully you do. But if you don’t, I’ll tell you at the end. Regardless, emoji’s are taking over the world, in a kind of insane way. What started out as simple pictures to lighten up your messages has now turned into a multi-million-dollar industry. No keyboard is complete without its own set of emoji’s. Emoji’s are so popular, that even celebrities like Kim Kardashians have their own. They’ve become so universally accepted, that we can basically communicate through these little pictures.

However, just like anything, sometimes, people can get a little too sensitive and out of control. Emoji’s have become so influential, that currently, the New York Police Department are trying to determine if sending a gun and bomb emoji is a threat to society. Furthermore, last year, there was a big call for organizations to create emoji’s that were more culturally diverse. As a person from a South East Asian background, I personally would not care less if emoji’s just had one colour; they’re literally a tiny picture on your phone. But as always, some people out there are always willing to pick on the little details.

Emoji’s has become such a major thing that there is actually an Emoji movie in the works! I’d love to see how that works out. Hopefully it won’t be a major downfall, like as if it was raining cats and dogs… get it? (That’s what the emoji’s stood for… Am I still punny?)

- Maddie

Sources

http://www.iemoji.com/pic/6xEmlskMbNvF_JIQUH43QPb9w@2x.png

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/major+emojis+rise+influencing+language+virtual+world/11770483/story.html

http://www.livemaguk.com/much-influence-emojis/

How the Mobile Phone Changed Kenya

Over 260,000 people live on the outskirts of Nairobi (the capital of Kenya) in the slum of Korogocho. A decade ago, the digital gap between the developing and developed worlds was widening, where Sub-Saharan Africa had limited landlines and broadband. Most people had no access to banks and economies relied on cash.

At first, mobile phones seemed as if they would always be as inaccessible to poor Africans as other technology had been. In 2002 Kenya had just two mobile phones for every 100 of its 38 million people.

To transfer money, Kenyans would travel over a day to purchase orders for their businesses or give money to families. The only way to send money home was via a minibus taxi, which was inconvenient, time-consuming and open to theft.

Between 2002 and 2006 the number of mobile phones in Kenya increased from 1 million to 10 million.

Multinational telecom companies arrived and, with few planning restrictions, quickly erected mobile-phone masts, even in remote areas. Cheap handsets – generally second hand and always basic – became available. Although the prepaid service that most subscribers used were costly for ordinary Kenyans, they enabled contact with villages half a day away, unreachable by road, and without water or electricity. This transformed both business and social and family life.

Now, everyday millions of Kenyans transfer money using M-Pesa (mobile money) readily through text messages.

- Riana

Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/how-the-mobile-phone-changed-kenya-1.2646968

Cyberbullying and Smartphones

As much as we are thankful for all the advancements in technology, not everything about this is good. One of the biggest problems with social media is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is an easy way for bullies and internet trolls to attack or harass other people. Why is it easy? Because they’re doing it behind a screen and in most cases, they can be anonymous about it. With 9 out of 10 teens owning a smartphone or gadget that has access to social media, cyberbullying has gotten out of control.

Here’s a couple of facts about Cyberbullying

1. Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online. 1 in 4 has had it happen more than once.
2. Over 80% of teens use a cell phone regularly, making it the most common medium for cyber bullying.
3. 81% of young people think bullying online is easier to get away with than bullying in person.
4. 90% of teens who have seen social-media bullying say they have ignored it. 84% have seen others tell cyber bullies to stop.
5. Girls are about twice as likely as boys to be victims and perpetrators of cyber bullying.

Cyberbullying is seriously getting out of hand and it is something that young people need to be concerned about. So what can we do about it? I personally think the best thing to do is to education EVERYONE. This ranges to the parents, and to make sure they keep a subtle eye on what their children are doing. Teenagers and young people also need to be cautious about what they post on social media. If they wouldn’t say it in public, then they shouldn’t post it online. Remember, the things you post online stays there forever. Cyberbullying doesn’t just affect young people, everyday people can also be affected, like the average worker. So basically, everyone should pay attention to what they post online. Just remember, treat everyone the way you want to be treated.

- Maddie

 Sources

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying

http://www.antibullyingpro.com/blog/2015/4/7/facts-on-bullying?gclid=Cj0KEQjw3-W5BRCymr_7r7SFt8cBEiQAsLtM8j-80Uxi8eeGSjTFjOAxbXJkgdBnltFDunURXBt1n8caAi4f8P8HAQ

http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/text-bullying.html