Rural-Urban Differentials in the Attitude of Global Systems of Mobile Communication (GSM) Consumers to Merits and Demerits of GSM Technology in Ogun State, Nigeria

摘要

The advent of the Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) in Nigeria has become the order of most day-to-day activities; however, consumers of GSM services through the use of cellular phones are faced with numerous problems in making use of the GSM technology. This study examined the attitude of respondents to the merits and demerits inherent in the use of cellular phones in rural and urban Ogun State of Nigeria. 70 respondents were randomly selected and interviewed in two local government areas of the State using a well-structured questionnaire, out of which 66 data set were eventually found useful. Data were collected and analyzed using simple descriptive [averages and percentages] and Chi-square statistics. Gender distribution shows significant difference in both locations at 5% probability level (p u3c 0.05), however the respondents were predominantly male. Significant proportion of the urban dwellers (at 5% probability level i.e. p u3c 0.05) were more learned (formally) than the ones in the rural area while the distribution of vocation of respondents was significantly different in both location at 1% probability level (p u3c 0.01) with most respondents being farmers in the rural area. Both rural and urban respondents believed cellular phone use is advantageous with a slightly higher index for urban location than for the rural location. Furthermore, respondents in the urban location viewed cellular phone technology as disadvantageous with respect to health implications indicating a slightly higher index than for the respondents in the rural location. Therefore, it was recommended that more attention should be paid to educating the populace on the safe use of cellular phones in all locations of the study area.