
We are at the beginning of a week long holiday to celebrate China's National Day and, of course, it is necessary to wish all your friends a good holiday and to contact them to arrange to meet up for some shopping trips.
The simplest way to do this is to send a short message (SMS) from your mobile phone. Messages are so cheap to send that I can’t even begin to translate the price into any other currency. What is a quarter of a farthing, anyway?
Ten years ago few people had a phone at home, never mind a cell phone. Today, everyone has at least one. Even beggars and tramps! People change their phones regularly to keep up with the times. They are not only tools by fashion accessories and no one can lose face by having last week’s model!
This means that the city centre streets are littered with mobile phone shops vying for attention. People hand you advertising leaflets everywhere you go and each shop has loud music blaring out just in case you didn’t notice them.
However, the local health authorities have issued a warning. It seems that people are sending so many messages that the local hospitals are experiencing a huge rise in the number of finger strain injuries! Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Especially around holiday times.
I now sit back and wait for someone to ask how to write Chinese characters on a cell phone.
tags: china national day telephone sms cell phone mobile phone fingers strain rsi
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