Image for Gen N rue mobile men

Mobile phones are very much a part of the teenage stereotype — a surly, trendy, pre-adult, furiously texting or posing for phone-pics or answering an annoyingly hip ring tone with a too-loud barrage of enthusiastic greetings. So it’s no surprise to discover that despite a ban on mobile phones on college campuses, cell phones are very much in use and increasingly nefarious for their potential for abuse.

Vamshi Krishna, 17, Little Flower Junior College says, “It has become a status symbol for every teenager to be seen with a cell phone. A few teenagers resort to using them on the college campus.” Rakesh Goud, 17, from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan couldn’t agree more. He says, “They are carried by everyone.”
College authorities maintain they are trying to rein in the distraction and mischief caused by cell phones. Vamshi agrees in principle, “A few students in my college used their mobile phones to copy during the pre-final exams. It is so easy to exchange answers using bluetooth in the absence of invigilators.”
Rakesh’s class has been disturbed umpteen times by brazen students and their “loud, cranky ring tones. A few collegiates even watch porn on mobile phones and later circulate the MMS!”
Aarti N. Nagpal, 17, St Francis College, cites a few alarming incidents which had her shocked in college.
She recounts, “A senior of mine from my previous college became suicidal after her parents disallowed her from carrying a mobile phone. In yet another incident, two girls fought over a guy, which was recorded and put up on YouTube. It affects not just the person, but the reputation of colleges themselves are tarnished.”
In a similar incident, a girl was shot kissing a classmate and her pictures were circulated amongst other teenagers. The unfortunate event caused her to commit suicide.
It’s obvious banning the instruments is the metaphorical band-aid on a bullet wound. Still, how does one curb the young and the restless and their misuse of this technology? This is a question that remains unanswered even today.

N. Kartik Rao
The Asian Age