When I Was Young

KUALA LUMPUR - Close to a quarter, or 22 per cent, of urban Malaysians say they have broken up with someone via Short Message Service (SMS) while 20 per cent say they were dumped by their partners via SMS.

In a recent survey by research company Synovate, 39 per cent said that they had flirted with their partners through SMS while 49 per cent admitted to lying about their location or being late through SMS.

Over 8,000 people from 11 countries including Malaysia, Russia, France, Taiwan, the Philippines, United Kingdom and Singapore took part in the survey, which explored the attitudes of men and women toward mobile phones and factors surrounding their choices.

"It's clear that urban Malaysians opt for a non-confrontational approach when it comes to dealing with difficult and sometimes touchy situations," said Mr Steve Murphy, managing director of Synovate Malaysia.

"They find it easier to express themselves through a text message as oppose to face-to-face communication."

Close to half, or 49 per cent, of urban Malaysians also found it easier to say "no" to something they did not want to do via SMS.

The survey revealed that urban Malaysians preferred using a keypad instead of a touch screen-based phone.

About 61 per cent of respondents rated taking pictures as the most popular mobile phone related leisure activity, followed by 43 per cent who said they played games and 38 per cent who downloaded or listened to music.

Urban Malaysians were also found to have a strong attachment to their mobile phones, with 66 per cent admitting that they never leave home without it while 62 per cent said that they sleep with their mobile phones close by.

"We compared views of urban Malaysian mobile phone owners against other nationalities and found similarities across different nations," said Mr Murphy.

"With the exception of urban Taiwanese, all other urban mobile phone owners said that they never leave home without their mobiles.

"Urban Filipinos found it the hardest to turn off their mobiles while urban English (47 per cent) and Russian (40 per cent) mobile phone owners flirted with their partners the most through text messaging or SMS. Interestingly enough, over a quarter (26 per cent) of urban Singaporeans (the highest across all markets) were found to have flirted with someone who was not their partner via SMS." THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

From TODAY, World – Wednesday, 16-Sep-2009