MOBILE PHONE USE AND PHYSICAL MOBILITY AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE KWAHU WEST MUNICIPALITY

ABSTRACT It is an undeniable fact that the mobile phone technology has become part of the young people and the younger generation at large. In Ghana, mobile phone use is now in excess of 36 million regardless of one’s age, gender, educational level and/or economic status. Since young people mostly engage in travelling and have unlimited opportunities for mobility, this study was conducted in the Kwahu West Municipality to investigate whether the use of mobile phones has had an impact on young peoples physical mobility. With the use of a multistage sampling procedure, the municipality was clustered into an urban area, peri-urban area and two rural areas. 243 questionnaires were used to obtain data from young people between the ages of 10 and 25 who were selected random method. The findings from the study was presented using descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found that males and persons between 20 and 25 made much use of their phones prior to the study, and also made claims of reduced physical travels with respect to their short and long journeys. However, there was not enough evidence to show that their overall physical travels had reduced with the use of mobile phones. But the findings invariably revealed that as the age and educational levels of the respondents increased the overall journeys embarked on also reduced. Therefore, the study recommended a continuous education for young mobile phone users by mobile telecommunications companies and other social bodies on how to use their phones for activities other than engaging in physical travelling. Also more studies be conducted in other areas of the municipality to gather enough data to clearly reveal the impact of mobile phone use on the physical mobility/ travels of young people.