The risks phone users are taking while on the road
are enormous. They behave like people who are hypnotised and drawn into the wilderness, groping in darkness. Their behaviour suggests a complete loss of sense of reasoning.
And unless something drastic is done to stop it, we will be recording high number of deaths because of wrong phone usage.
Phones are supposed to be used often and not at random. Before the advent of mobile phones in Nigeria, phones were used in phone boots and at home. People who had landlines in their homes mostly used them quietly and exclusively.
From the time mobile phones entered the shores of Nigeria, people started behaving abnormally to the point that GSM was referred to as General Street Madness”. With time rather than the ugly trend subsiding it, it is on the increase and this is not in the interest of the society. Indeed, it is an embarrassment and an eye sore in the society.
At every time of the day, on every street and at every corner, you will see people using phones in such a way that makes you question the sanity of their brains. Young men and women are seen shouting on the top of their voices while walking on the streets. Others chat, send text messages, make or receive calls while driving. Some even go as far as blocking the road while driving or walking on the road.
For those taking or making calls while driving, they endanger the lives of other road users, either people in the car they are driving or their cars and even pedestrians.
We have heard of how people drive into shops and houses, killing people because they were making or taking calls, especially doing this using one hand to hold the phone and the other to drive. No matter the extent of expertise one may attain, driving cannot be at its best, driving with one hand. In the case of emergency, one’s response to the condition can not be as swift as one using both hands to drive. Even bad news received on phones can keep the driver off balance.
We have also heard about people who drove into ditches or even hitting poles while driving. Nobody can envisage or fathom what a distraction for a split second can cause while driving. Despite the warnings issued by different organisations, and even the media houses, people are still turning deaf ears to the issue of safe driving.
Those who block both ears while driving or walking on the road cannot respond to the blaring of horns from other cars. The worst of it is that they do these things acting so lackadaisically and insensitively.  You who is driving will be the one to ensure that you do not hit them down.
Such practices are so rampant that they constitute nuisance to the society. Why can’t someone pack his car at a safe place and make or take his call. Or better still, if you must take or make calls and drive, you ought to use the ear piece on one ear to ensure your safety while driving. How can someone block both ears and drive or walking on the road. In the case of any emergency, how do you escape?
Others effects of phone  usage on our society is the use of the social media. Youths of  these days spend the nights to chat and ping rather than sleeping and use the time they are supposed to be working to sleep. This attitude, if not curbed, will grossly affect productivity.
Recently, it was reported in the social media, how a girl who like other young people cannot do without phone, connected her power bank to the phone and fixed the power bank to the socket, while she was sleeping with the phone was on her chest. When power returned, the power bank exploded and electrocuted her immediately.
Most youths cannot concentrate on whatever they do. All their interest is one the phone. Even in class, rather than switching off phones to take lectures, they will be pinging and taking pictures, thereby losing important facts on the topics.   They do not know how to place priorities right. They rather chase shadows and leave out the substance.
Most of them log on to bad websites and corrupt themselves and others. They introduce themselves in to one form of evil o r the other through phone usage and the social media. They get emboldened to do evil through it.
Students do not study anymore, they rather chat. They sacrifice their educational careers at the altar of the social media and waste monies expended on their education, only to feel empty after school, because they did not prioritise their activities right. Time lost is lost forever.  Some of them come out with very bad results that cannot give employers the boldness to employ them. Others cannot read further with what they came out with, except they remedy it.
Youths should rather use the internet which is a bank of knowledge to increase their knowledge and come out with flying colours at the end of school. They should make good use of the good side and shun the negative side. They should enjoy the wealth of knowledge it brings and become greater scientists than the old. This will make for a better and a more equipped society.
Ikiensikimama is an intern with The Tide.

Iyeneomi Mercy Ikiensikimama