Most teens use phones for calls

A mobile phone user in Nyeri. You could spend up to two years in jail for revealing someone’s mobile phone number without their consent, if a proposed Bill becomes law. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | FILE

What you need to know:

  • The Consumer Insight study shows that more than 90 per cent of Kenya’s youth use the phones to make calls or send text messages.
  • Many of the respondents said they owned basic phones, but desired to own smartphones, which are costlier.

Most young people use their mobile handsets to make telephone calls and send or receive money, a new survey shows, debunking the perception that the gadgets are for social networking.

The Consumer Insight study shows that more than 90 per cent of Kenya’s youth use the phones to make calls or send text messages while only nine per cent use them to access social networks, like Facebook.

According to another survey by DigitalRand, a Nairobi-based company, four million Kenyans use social media, with Facebook commanding a lead by virtue of its 3.8 million users. The study says Twitter mobile applications are now more popular than web-based apps.

LISTEN TO RADIO

The Consumer Insight study says the mobile phone is a popular way for the youth to tune in, with more than 50 per cent saying they use handsets to listen to radio.

Most FM stations play music during talk shows with hourly news updates, which could suggest that young people tune in mostly for the music considering that 47 per cent of respondents also said they listened to MP3 music compared to 49 per cent who use the gadgets to play games.

Only 20 per cent use their mobile phones expressly to access news updates.

Whereas 28 per cent use their gadgets to send or receive emails, three quarters say they use them for money transactions such as M-Pesa.

Only seven per cent of the country’s youth own more than one mobile phone.

Many of the respondents said they owned basic phones, but desired to own smartphones, which are costlier — an indication that their choice of phone was dictated by the price.

Though owned by only two per cent of the respondents, the iPhone is the most desired brand among the youth at 39 per cent although more than half of the respondents owned a Nokia handset.

More than half the 860 youth polled said they used their mobile devices to go online. They use the time the net to surf, research, send emails and use social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Interestingly, according to the DigitalRand, 65 per cent of all Twitter accounts operated by Kenyans are dormant. It also says that 19 per cent of Twitter account holders have not twitted at all in 2014.

Although LinkedIn was the social site with the second highest number of accounts by Kenyans, it also had the highest number of dormant accounts, followed by Google+ and Twitter.

The cumulative time spent staring at the phone is feared by some to have negative effects.

Psychologist Nelson Ondari warns that heavy usage could affect memory and concentration besides leading to anxiety. “Their brains are developing and heavy usage can affect them more than adults,” he says.