What are the social and environmental risks of Mobile Phone?

We chose this research question because, in today's society, mobile phones are a part of our daily lives and are very important to us, to the point where we have developed some sort of addiction towards it. They are globally used and help us connect and communicate with others. Furthermore, some people use their phones as a way of fashion and like to show it off to the public. This can affect many people in numerous different ways from various perspectives, like socially and economically.

In this project, we are choosing to focus on its contrasting and different effects on India; mostly socially and environmentally speaking.

What is Mobile Phone Fashion?

Mobile phone fashion is using mobile phones for fashion items instead of using them for communicating with others. This could be done in many ways, some of them are using them for accessories or to show them off. When mobile phones first came out 30 years ago, people only focused on how they were wireless after 100 years of having wired phones, and not everyone could afford or had a phone.

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However, this all changed, and now, it has millions of uses including their significantly appreciated utilization as fashion items.

Everywhere you look, you can easily spot someone holding a phone; adults, children and teenagers - all generations have entered the global trend! Now, mobile phones are a must-have item that can even show people's personalities and style. Some people will tell you that they value their mobile phone like a best friend, since it has some private information and lots of other uses, which people see in friends as well.

Also, you could purchase covers and other extra accessories, which some people put, based on what they're wearing or their distinctive desire (Day, 2014).

Studies of young people purchases of phones show that mobile phones are used for expressing their identity and are used in a similar way to how clothing is used for style. So now, companies are trying to make their products more aesthetically pleasing so that consumers would buy from their company as the number of new phones being produced is increasingly high (Microsoft et al., 2014).

Are we affecting India with Mobile Phone Fashion?

Many consequences are being produced due to mobile phone fashion, specifically in India. Due to increasing prices of mobile phones (as for its value has increased globally), many Indians are not capable of purchasing phones. This was shown because currently, there are around 1 billion Indians without iPhones. This consequence appears in India because a few locations in India are encountering poverty, (poor), so they are not capable of purchasing the latest iPhones which are all apart of the mobile phone fashion industry (Iyengar, 2019).

The increasing prices between 2016-2017 for a mobile phone has changed drastically. In 2016, the average price for an iPhone was around $630. In 2017, the new average price for an iPhone increased to $750 (19% increase within a year). As we could see from this statistic, it has depicted that the value of iPhones has increased between the years of 2016 and 2017.

Nowadays, many others have to purchase more iPhones, which conveys that they have become one crucial aspect of everyone's daily lives. Thus, causing an increase in the prices for iPhones (Petrov, 2019). Due to India's increasing prices, it has caused a lot of money to be spent on iPhones which then departs its way to the government. The government in return would use this money to build infrastructures and other tourist destinations (to attract more tourists), which leaves almost no money for the people living in famine areas, therefore increasing poverty in India.

How does this link into Globalization?

This links to globalization because mobile phones are items used all around the world. They have become very popular as they have many functions, more than just being able to communicate with others. But also it changed the way society acts as a whole and how we work. An example of this would be receiving phone calls that are advertisements, obviously, this didn't exist before mobile phones were made. Mobile phones also allow us to communicate with everyone, even if they're overseas. This makes the world 'a smaller place' meaning we are all connected and news could go around fast.

So ideas like fashion could go from one country to another at a rapid speed. Before phones, the news would go around at a very slow pace so the news would take years and years to go from one country to another. This means that the idea of having mobile phones as a fashion spread around fast but in poorer places like India, not everyone can afford a phone for them to have it as fashion, this could socially affect them (Blaisdell, 2012).

Mobile phone fashion is a big deal in the fashion industry, not just the technological industry, like it used to be just a few decades ago, and it is an idea that is greatly recognized on all corners around the world. This means that TNC's have to be involved in this as they would have competition of whose products look better.