NEVER mind the addiction to the mobile phone, (‘We’re Hooked on our Media’, Echo April 12), which can keep the hands busy instead of smoking/biting nails/other awful habits; but so much of the lure is the status symbol of being the owner of “the latest model”.

It smacks of the school playground mentality where the rich kids have the best trainers, carried into the adult world hoisted upon the ego-swelling pomposity of owning the latest all-singing, all-dancing model.

Agreed, the days of the PC and even the laptop seem to be numbered now the mobile has just about every “App” known to mankind, and it is a huge tribute to man’s ingenuity and micro-technology. But as the feature pointed out, it's as if people can no longer survive without owning one, as if it's an essential commodity, like breathing air.

And I must ask, why do people pat themselves down as if they're on fire when their phone rings, and start walking around in circles whilst they're talking?

It looks most odd and is quite hilarious to see.

ALAN BURRIDGE, Blandford Road, Upton