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 multi
stage 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.
