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It's proven - teenagers are smoking less and talking more!
Recent studies published in the British Medical Journal suggest that the decline in the incidence of smoking among the youth can be attributed to the prevalence of cellphones, as teenagers seem to be smoking less and talking more on their cellphones.
Cellphones appear to fill a gap in the lives of our youth that was historically filled by cigarettes.
Nowadays teenagers spend all of their available money on airtime and mobile entertainment which competes with cigarettes as teen statements of fashion and rebellion.
Anne Charlton, a teenage smoking expert at the University of Manchester in England says, "It's all about the cool factor. Owning a cellphone is not just about making calls, it's also a social prop." This extends to cellphone features such as ringtones, logo's, wallpapers, picture messages, games and various other products.
eXactmobile, South African mobile services entertainment provider, has approximately three million items that are downloaded monthly from their South African based services alone, with the figures growing month-on-month. The age group of those downloading varies between 10 and 25 years with the average age being around 17 or 18 years of age. The average spend per customer is R18 - R24 a month but with many customers spending in excess of R300 per month, indicating the growing importance of this market amongst our youth.
