Smartphones: A necessary evil?

A university student of this generation cannot be separated from a smartphone. Phones are in some cases replacing their friends. NET PHOTO

If you shared a seat with a university student in a taxi, chances are high that they will be buried in their smartphones most of the journey.
They may at times not even notice the person next to them. All you will hear are them make some giggles as they swipe away on their phones. This shows you just how much these gadgets mean to them.

According to Derrick Mwikyo, a student at Kyambogo University, his smartphone is his favourite gadget.

“It is actually the most expensive gadget I own; a Samsung Galaxy Note 6. I bought it from a friend at Shs800,000. It has made it easy for me to make friends. I can easily order for pizza online just to get the attention of a certain girl. With a mere gadget, I can hype my lifestyle when I please,” he says.
Just like Mwikyo, many students invest money and time in trying to acquire expensive phones. But for a student, most times even without a source of income, is it necessity to own these fancy phones?

According to Chris Ahebwa, a lecturer at Mountains of the Moon University in Fort portal, the world is changing fast.
“A student of this generation cannot be separated from a phone. Phones are replacing their friends, they [phones] are linking them up with different social classes of people as well as feeding them with current information,” he says.

Ahabwe, however, observes that there are a number of negative effects that come along with bad phone usage.
“Smartphones are greatly affecting the student’s reading culture. Some no longer make use of libraries, they depend on their phones to Google anything that they are not sure of,” he observes.

Rainer Nasiimwa, a third year student of Development Studies at Kyambogo University, says many students are in a dilemma.

“I have a Tecno C9 which I bought at Shs550,000. I could not afford all that money by myself, so I pleaded with my elder sister and she topped up for me,” she says.

Nasiimwa says it is possible for campus students to be with cheap phones but most of them strive to own expensive ones so as not to be looked at as underprivileged.
“You find a girl spending sleepless nights in bars, others sexually being harassed all in the name finding ways to get a good gadget,” she says.
To Nasiimwa, phones are a social evil that have dragged a number of students into problems.

“Recently, a group of campus girls from several universities dragged a conman to CPS [Central Police Station]. They were accusing him of conning them online and using them with the promise of linking them up with a big political figure in State House,” she says.

According to Margaret Tumusiime, a parent and teacher at Merry Land High School, though it is essential for university students to have smartphones for communication, they need to be conscious of how they use them.

“Gadgets, especially smartphones, are good for university students, they can use them to better their research and they can also use them to communicate with their parents and friends. However, students need to use them for the best causes. Avoid using smartphones for unnecessary reasons like downloading pornographic content as well as using them in bad deals like robbing,” she says.

Tumusiime cautions students against spending most of their time on phones, saying it gives less time to read their books, the reason they are at university in the first place.
“Some students, especially girls, are using awkward ways to get nice phones. They sleep with men as old as their parents, instead of sleeping at hostels. They don’t attend lectures as they are always on dates with various men all in the name of getting money,” she says.