Methodological Madness

Well not quite.

This article in the Sydney Morning Herald discusses the psychological isolation of those young people that do not have mobile phones.

Mobile phones are increasing being used as a mechanism of social networking rather than simple communication. It is now viewed as more important for people to receive a large number of mobile phone calls and text messages rather than having a fewer number of good quality conversations. As a result, it is not surprising that James Katz, director of the Centre for Mobile Communication Studies at the Rutgers University in the US, found that about 90 per cent of young people admit they have faked a call.

Not only mobile phones are now dominant in social networking, it is increasing being used for social dis-networking. A quote:

Last year a large New Zealand study of 12- to 15-year-olds found that 23 per cent of mobile phone users had ended a relationship by text, 39 per cent had used text messages in an argument, 29 per cent used their phone in class and 11 per cent were woken up every night by incoming text messages.

For someone whose mobile phone conversations average less than a minute each, much food for thought.