Posted: July 20, 2007

The majority of Australians believe that mobile phones have helped to balance their family and working lives. Social researchers from The Australian National University, the University of New England and the University of New South Wales found that only 3% of people reported that the mobile phone had a negative impact on their work-life balance.

The project, part of an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant connecting researchers and the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA), examined the social impact of mobile technologies at home and work. It collected nationally representative data between March and May this year from a sample of 1358 individuals from 845 on-line households.

The preliminary results of the three-year project found that the mobile phone is an indispensable part of the Australian life, with more than 90% of respondents reporting that their lives could not “proceed as normal” without their mobiles.

“Very few respondents reported that the mobile phone has a negative impact on their work-life balance (3%),” said lead researcher Professor Judy Wajcman from the Australian National University. “A high proportion of respondents (43%) said that it has had no effect. Yet more than half (54%) of the respondents believed that the mobile helped them to balance their family and working lives.”

“Rather than fragmenting time, our study suggests that mobile phone practices are strengthening and deepening relationships and building durable social bonds,” Professor Wajcman said.

Apparently, the 3% who found cell phones to have a negative effect on their lives belong to a very vocal and very disturbed minority.

Last Saturday, a man went on a rampage with a stolen armored personnel carrier through suburban Sydney, crashing into several mobile phone towers, telecommunications buildings and an electricity substation before being arrested. The man led officers on a 90-minute chase across six western suburbs before the vehicle stalled as it was being driven toward another mobile phone tower, New South Wales police said in a statement.

The damage was pretty massive, according to cops: “He continued to destroy mobile tower communications sheds by crashing through the perimeter fence and colliding with structures, causing significant damage.”

Police charged him with numerous offenses, including predatory driving, possession of a prohibited drug and use of a weapon to avoid apprehension.

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