Johnny O'Mahony (16) of Watergrasshill, Co Cork, a student at Coláiste an Phiarsaigh in Glanmire, Co Cork, tells EL why he couldn't possibly live without his mobile.
irst got a mobile only about a year ago - my parents were going abroad and they found they couldn't use their own phone there, so they gave it to me. I got a new one of my own after about six months: it's a Nokia 3310, and I paid about £150 for it.
It's a pre-paid phone, and I go through about £20 in call credit every week to two weeks. How do I finance that? Badly. I pay for it with my pocket money, the odd bit of part-time work, that sort of thing.
About 95 per cent of my credit is spent on texting. I like it because it's silent and private and very fast - I use the predictive-text facility on my phone, so I can send a full sentence in five or 10 seconds. [EL didn't believe this until we saw it - Ed.]
Texting also gives you time to think of a response. Humour is really important in texting; it's a way to keep in touch, but also to lighten the mood. to perk people up, to have a laugh.
You do have to be careful with text about misunderstandings that might seem insulting. I might say: "Okay lads, take it easy" as a way of saying goodbye, and my friends would take it up as "calm down".
My phone was stolen during the summer, and I basically lost touch with all my friends for about two months. It was particuarly bad because it was during the summer and I didn't have school to keep in contact.
These days I'm sending up to 30 texts a day, if you count sending the same text to different people. A cheaper way of doing "group" texting is coming in on Esat - I'm screwed being with Eircell, which also costs 10p all the time, whereas Esat has an off-peak rate.
I'm not worried about radiation. I use a cordless phone with the landline at home, and I don't worry about the radiation from that - which is supposed to be higher than my mobile.
I'm not sentimental about my phone, but I'd be lost communication-wise without it. A lot of people buy extra covers to make their phones look nicer. I just bought a rubber cover for £15 to protect the phone from scratches. A lot of my friends would have novelty covers - Tweety Bird for the girls and Budweiser Whassup for the lads.
But for me the phone is a functional item, not a fashion accessory. Idon't download ringtones because they cost too much - the standard ringtone does me fine. And I'd have no use really for 3G phones. All the same, I am thinking of investing in one of these Nokia music players you can connect to the phone.
