Mobile Phones Promote Literacy in Poorest Countries: UN Report
A new report from UNESCO suggests that mobile phones aren’t just promoting communication and commerce in the world’s poorest countries, they’re also encouraging literacy — especially among women. But technical and content barriers remain.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization surveyed thousands of mobile phone users in Africa, India and the Middle East about how and why they read on their phones. Some of the results are surprising, and overall it paints a hopeful picture for the future of literacy in those areas.
Most of the data comes from users of the WorldReader app, which brings thousands of free (and a few non-free) books to the feature phones so common in developing countries. There are few fancy iPhones here, much less Kindles, and even paper books are scarce. That means often people read on the tiny screens of their mobiles or not at all.
Some statistics are as one might expect: Mobile readers tend to be younger men with at least a high-school-level education. But one interesting twist is that women, despite comprising less than a quarter of mobile readers, accounted for two-thirds of the reading done. On average, men spent just above half an hour a month reading on their phones, while women read for over 200 minutes.
UNESCO
It’s convenient, after all, since phones are often right there, and it’s extremely cheap: a 500-page book can be delivered for pennies’ worth of data. That said, the books are “streamed” page by page, so a constant connection is required — meaning no taking “Pride and Prejudice” outside of cell range.
The other main complaint seems to be selection: not enough in a native language, or in a certain genre.
The UNESCO report recommends further research, but concludes for now that mobiles are a powerful tool for increasing literacy and empowering women and disadvantaged children.
Mobile addicts are multiplying at an alarming rate, as an increasing number of teens, college students and middle-age parents fall victim to the problem.
A “mobile addict” is defined as a user that launches apps more than 60 times a day, according to mobile analytics firm Flurry, six times more than the average user.
The number of mobile addicts has grown by 123 percent over the past year, according to Flurry, which looks at data from 500,000 apps across 1.3 billion mobile devices.
As of March 2014, there were 176 million addicts, up from 79 million in the same period last year. Females accounted for 52 percent of addicts, while the rest were males.
It comes as no surprise that teens and college students are part of this group as their youth has coincided with the mobile revolution.
“[Teens] are not just accustomed to mobile, they expect their mobile device to handle nearly every type of task and communication,” Flurry said.
“The same is true for college students who are noticeably avid users of messaging and gaming apps. They have just entered the workforce, are predominantly single and are likely out and about more often than older and younger segments,” it added.
What’s interesting is the number of middle-aged consumers (aged 35-54) that have exhibited obsessive-compulsive behavior with their mobile devices.
Middle-aged consumers constitute 28 percent of mobile addicts, but account for just 20 percent of the average mobile consumer. Female middle-aged addicts fell into categories such as mothers, gamers and sports fans. Meanwhile, male addicts were parents, car enthusiasts, gamers and catalog shoppers.
Researchers, however, noted that part of the high usage amongst middle-aged users could be because their devices are shared among multiple family members including their children.
“The picture we formed is a family of four, with two phones, one tablet, and all three devices shared by the family for education, entertainment and more utilitarian functions as well,” Flurry said.
Gadget addiction — or nomophobia — has become a growing concern in Asia-Pacific, the region that is leading mobile phone sales growth globally.
In the ultra-wired South Korea, where the average smartphone owner spends over four hours a day on the device, the government is looking to take matters into its own hands by possibly introducing a curfew on smartphone use, according to GlobalPost.
Three years ago, the government implemented a curfew to block users under 16 years old from accessing online computer games after midnight in an effort to curb video game addition among the youth.
Early adopters of wearable devices
With mobile addicts launching apps over 60 times a day, they are effectively wearing the devices.
To date, most applications for wearables have focused on fitness and health. But, developers should think about the other experiences that will appeal to the people who need to be connected all the time, Flurry said.
Read More: Tablets are the new smartphones
“This includes teens, college students and middle-aged parents who are interested gaming, autos, sports and shopping, and who may have a constant need to entertain or educate their children. After all, the people who we consider “mobile addicts” are already essentially wearing their devices 24/7/365,” it said.