Mxit

My heart palpitating, perspiration exuding of my forehead and I start to pant faster…… My palm is sweaty, my toes tense up and every fiber of my being aches with this strong unexplainable gravitational pull. I gobble down my breakfast, racing for time hoping and praying that I have not missed anything. With a palpitating heart, a sweaty forehead and a raging pant, Alas!! I get to my cell phone before the battery dies and in relief I see that I am still connected to Mxit.

We are going to navigate our assignment on the basis of addiction and how it plays on the mind of consumers in respect of their well being. We will steer our way through the different aspects underlying this irrational emotion. We will also demonstrate to you how Mxit and Addiction plays on our fragile psychological state of mind.

MXit is a mobile instant messaging service developed in South Africa that runs on GPRS/3G cell phone and supported by java. It allows the user to send and receive text messages to cell phones running MXit. These messages are sent and received via the bandwidth connection connecting to your local service provider and the internet. The user can also exchange messages with online chat communities like MSN Messenger, Yahoo! ICQ, AOL messenger, and Jabber. Messages are billed by the amount of data sent; they are much cheaper to send than traditional SMS messages. MXit has a registered user base of two million. The application is distributed internationally, but the bulk of their user base is South African teenager.

Addiction is characterized by the compulsive use of substances or engagement of behaviors despite clear evidence to the users of consequent morbidity and other harmful effects. Chatting on Mxit for hours on end can be addictive and this addiction is described as an impulse control disorder, which does not involve the use of an intoxicating drug.

Signs of an Mxit addict include the use of Mxit uncontrollably in order to achieve satisfaction. Repeated, unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop the use of Mxit.

You also suffer from restless, moodiness, depression or irritability when attempting to cut down the use of Mxit. You where on-line longer than originally intended. You jeopardized or risked the loss of significant relationships, job, and education and career opportunities because of Mxit. You have a tendency to lies to family members, friends or others to conceal the extent of your involvement on Mxit.

What makes the Mxit so addictive?

Some Mxit users may develop an emotional attachment to on-line friends and activities they create on their cell phone screens. Mxit users may enjoy aspects of the different chat sites that allow them to meet, socialize and exchange ideas through the use of chat rooms or "virtual communities". These communities allow the person the means to escape from reality and this reality that the user develops is intimate and less threatening than real life relationships. Some addicts may also create on-line personas where they are able to alter their identities and pretend to be someone other than themselves. The highest risks for the creation of a secret life are those who suffer from low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy, and fear of disapproval from others. This false persona that people create is deceiving to others and this is where naive uses fall victims to sexual predators. This kind of behavior ultimately leads to sinister activities being performed on innocent children resulting in their diagnoses of emotional trauma.

In developing our hypothesis, we used explanatory (causal) hypothesis. It is a statement that describes a relationship between two variables in which one variable leads to a specified effect on the other variable. We used this to ensure that we have a strong hypothesis and fulfills its conditions. There are three basic conditions, it must be adequate for its purpose, it must be testable and it must be better than its rivals. As in politics, religion and rugby, opinions on Mxit differ widely. On the one hand it is considered innovative, empowering and a success story, and on the other hand it is considered dangerous, addictive and problematic. We have developed four hypotheses, which we consider adequate for our purposes.

HYPOTHESES 1: “If Mxit users become addicted, then this may lead to Pornography.”

Every few years the ugly charge of “pornography” is aimed at some novel, movie and now technological advances. What exactly is “pornography” that it should stir such feelings and be so hated? The problem of course, is no one can agree on what pornography actually is. That is has something to do with sex seems clear,