Mobile phone madness

Angie Smith loves her mobile phones and misses them when they aren’t ringing. d126559

ANGIE Smith has a love-hate relationship with her mobile phones.

The busy Coolangatta businesswoman who runs three businesses – Beauty Therapy Training Australia, Face Magic and Face Magic equipment sales – has two mobile phones.

“I am forever on my phone and my family is forever complaining about my phones,” she said.

“It’s a combination of addiction and work. Work dictates the ringing, but when it’s not on, I miss it.”

Like many others, she is also a phone hoarder.

“I probably have half a dozen dead ones. I think one or two of them work,” Ms Smith said.

“I guess they’re probably lying around in case I need a back-up one.”

She is not alone in her addiction.

A report released by not-for-profit mobile phone recycling program MobileMuster found that our nation of about 22 million people has 24.22 million mobile phone subscriptions and estimates we have between 14 and 16 million unused mobile phones gathering dust in our drawers.

University of New England Professor of Sociology Michael Bittman said mobiles were now the way we managed our personal communications traffic.

“It’s changed the ethics about staying in touch. Location is no longer an excuse,” Professor Bittman said.

“I think the reason people change their handset is that it is built in as part of phone companies’ marketing. They upgrade before it’s broken.”

Twenty-three per cent of respondents to a Tweed Daily News online poll said they had four mobile phones, while 15 per cent admitted to having three, 23 per cent said they had two and 38 per cent had just one. Fifty-eight per cent of respondents said they kept their old phone as a back-up.

Free recycling satchels for mobile phones are available from Australia Post outlets or you can download a mailing label from www.mobilemuster.com.au.