Emma would be just another Spanish teenager, if it were not for her mobile phones. She has nine of them, and develops a severe anxiety if she has to enter a place where they have no coverage.
She has forsaken her friends for the sake of unknown chat partners to whom she sometimes sends more than 200 messages in one night. Her mother says she has not slept sufficiently for three years, runs up huge phone bills and has become irritable and prone to lying.
PHOTO: DPA
Psychiatrists say cellphone addiction is an obsessive-compulsive disorder which looks set to become one of the biggest non-drug addictions in the 21st century.
Cellphone addiction can totally isolate its victims, ruin them economically and even turn them into criminals. In Spain, a country of 41 million people which has nearly 35 million cellphones, users are estimated to spend more than 500 million euros (US$590 million) on unnecessary cellphone costs annually.
The majority of the addicts are teenagers, whose shyness and low self-esteem make them succumb to aggressive publicity marketing a means to get in touch with people without having to meet them.
"I liked to chat on the mobile phone, because the chat partners told me nice things that I did not hear in real life, as I am a bit fat," one female former addict told the daily El Pais.
"Mobile phones give young people prestige," Barcelona psychologist Andres Gonzalez explains. "The person who gets the most messages is the most valued."
Many Spanish teenagers get their first cellphone at age 13. Young addicts may spend so much time making calls, receiving messages and logging into the Internet that they fail at school and drop out.
Addicts can easily run up phone bills of 800 euros a month, and some turn to crime to pay them.
One Spanish psychologists' association, for instance, has received hundreds of queries about mobile phone addictions, the daily La Vanguardia reported.
Gonzalez estimates that up to 15 percent of Spanish teenagers sleep with their mobile phones at hand to be able to answer messages at night.
Addiction should be suspected if a person feels an irresistible need to use the cellphone for more than half an hour daily.
Cellphone addiction is not that different from any other type of addiction, ranging from drugs to compulsive shopping, according to El Pais.
A person's vulnerability to addictions "depends largely on a small number of genes", addiction specialist Carlos Alvarez-Vara said. "If a parent is obsessive-compulsive, the children have a 30 percent chance of developing similar characteristics."
The modern addictions to mobile phones and the Internet are, however, paradoxical in that their victims use communication technologies to become isolated.
In societies where family ties have loosened and urban solitude has increased, people become addicted to "long-distance communication because they no longer find human relations through traditional means," psychologist Jaume Almenara said.
Adolescents get access to technologies, but little advice about how to use them, Gonzalez said.
Spanish specialists treat mobile phone addictions with three-month therapies. Experts stress that addictions can sometimes be pre-empted, if parents or teachers spot them early.
Climate change, political headwinds and diverging market dynamics around the world have pushed coffee prices to fresh records, jacking up the cost of your everyday brew or a barista’s signature macchiato. While the current hot streak may calm down in the coming months, experts and industry insiders expect volatility will remain the watchword, giving little visibility for producers — two-thirds of whom farm parcels of less than one hectare. METEORIC RISE The price of arabica beans listed in New York surged by 90 percent last year, smashing on Dec. 10 a record dating from 1977 — US$3.48 per pound. Robusta prices have
The resignation of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) co-founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as party chair on Jan. 1 has led to an interesting battle between two leading party figures, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如). For years the party has been a one-man show, but with Ko being held incommunicado while on trial for corruption, the new chair’s leadership could be make or break for the young party. Not only are the two very different in style, their backgrounds are very different. Tsai is a co-founder of the TPP and has been with Ko from the very beginning. Huang has
A few years ago, getting a visa to visit China was a “ball ache,” says Kate Murray. The Australian was going for a four-day trade show, but the visa required a formal invitation from the organizers and what felt like “a thousand forms.” “They wanted so many details about your life and personal life,” she tells the Guardian. “The paperwork was bonkers.” But were she to go back again now, Murray could just jump on the plane. Australians are among citizens of almost 40 countries for which China now waives visas for business, tourism or family visits for up to four weeks. It’s
Beyonce on Sunday finally won the Grammy for the year’s best album for her culture-shaking Cowboy Carter, as rapper Kendrick Lamar posted a clean sweep on a night that served as a love letter to fire-ravaged Los Angeles. Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Doechii and Sabrina Carpenter emerged as big winners at the performance-heavy gala, while heavyweights Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish went home empty-handed. Beyonce’s win for Cowboy Carter now makes her the most nominated, most decorated artist at the awards show ever — as well as the first Black woman to claim the top prize in this century. The triumph was all
RSS