More than 90 percent of Taiwan students worry or panic when they cannot use their cell phones, according to a survey released on Wednesday. The King Car Education Foundation polled 2,141 students from fifth-graders to university students in April to find out how cell-phone use affected their lives.
Overall, 80 percent had cell phones, a 15-percent increase from 2009. Nearly 100 percent of high school students and older had their own phone, compared with 45 percent for primary school students.
But the phones have brought anxieties as well as convenience. Ninety-three percent of the students polled said they panic or feel uneasy when they cannot make calls because they are not carrying the phone or when the battery has run out.
They also said they suffered distress when their phone does not ring or when they cannot get through to someone. Asked how they would feel about life without their phones, 33.7 percent said they feared boredom, and 19.3 percent said they would worry about losing touch with friends.
"Cell-phone use has become a daily necessity for teenagers," said Chan Chi-feng of National Taiwan University Hospital.
"It has both positive and negative effects on health, but the signs are not as obvious as PC [personal computer] or internet addiction," the foundation's report quoted him as saying. Students should be careful to use their phones in a "healthy way," the foundation's secretary general, Tseng Ching-yun, said, adding that the devices should not be allowed to affect their studies or health.
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