Cell Phone Use, a Confrontational Tool between Parents and the Youths in Eastern Kenya: Implications for Academics

Lazarus Ndiku Makewa – Professor of Educational Communication and Technology University of Eastern Africa, Baraton, Kenya. ndikul@gmail.com

Baraka Manjale Ngussa – Lecturer of Curriculum and Teaching, School of Education University of Arusha, Tanzania. ngussathe5th@gmail.com

ABSTRACT While a Cell phone seems to be a confrontational tools between parents and the youths, it possesses potential opportunities in the social and academic aspects. Using case study approach, this work investigated Cell Phone Use by 187 sampled youths in Eastern Kenya. Validity of the questionnaire was ensured through expert judgment and reliability test yielding cronbach’s alpha of .764 for parental support, .845 for academic use, .733 for socialization and .788 for political happenings. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. The order of priority in the use of cell phones was academics, socialization and political happenings. The study yielded no significant difference in the use of cell phones for academics by the youths categorized according to their gender. The higher the age, the higher the mean score for the use of cell phones for academic purposes. Parental support correlates with the use of cell phones for academics, socialization, and political happenings. It is recommended that the youths, regardless of their gender and age differences be encouraged by teachers and enabled by parents to possess cell phones since the tools are useful for academics, socialization and political updates. Parents need to increase their support in order to enhance the use of cell phones for aforementioned purposes.