ABSTRACT

Mobile Phone is an essential commodity to have in this ever changing world of Technology. There are various advantages of having a mobile phone which everyone is aware of, but at the same time there are various disadvantages also which are linked with mobile phones. In a country like India where most of the population resides in rural areas and plenty of them are young people use mobile phones for internet access, texting and voice calling. Likewise rest of India, Jammu and Kashmir also has a significant number of young mobile subscribers in rural areas and the number of mobile phone subscribers have increased enormously in recent years, This has also increased Internet penetration in rural areas in Jammu and Kashmir as majority of people in rural areas  use mobile phones for internet access, This increase in mobile subscribers has proved beneficial for the youth as well as state government as various government schemes have reached far flung areas through e-governance and as far as Youth of these areas are concerned, they are getting access to various platforms related to Education, Sports and entertainment. There are many advantages of mobile phones, but various studies have indicated its negative impact on Physiological, Psychological and social well beings of young people. On the one hand, there is the prospect of enormous positive advances in education and associated improvements in young people’s life ,on the other, the threat of wasted opportunity and damaged lives (Porter et al,2016).There is an urgent need to counter the negative effects of over indulgence and dependence  on mobile phones (Bhutia Y & Tariang,2016). This study aims to explore various pros and cons of the mobile phone usage among the youth of rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir, as the people in these areas are new to this technology and lack of guidance and counseling can be a major reason for them getting addicted to the mobile phones.Checking of mobile phones even by waking up from sleep indicates that we are developing mobile phone dependence ,which is a bad sign (George S, Saif N & Joseph BB,2010)