More cell phones than flush toilets -- Mobile phones reshaping African cultures

In this very moment, you're using the internet. Are you on a computer? If you're living in an African Country, chances are you've never even seen a computer and can only browse using a mobile device.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to CNN, 70 percent of mobile users browse the internet on the devices. Africa's broadband growth is increasing at a rate of more than 40 percent. This is twice the global average.

"More people in Africa have a mobile phone than access to electricity," stated editor and publisher of Stuff Magazine, Toby Shapshak to CNN.

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Africa is notorious for weak land-line infrastructure, making any connection through a desktop computer difficult.

The cellular phones African's are using cheaper low-cost or second-hand feature phones.

These less-expensive phones stay charged much longer than the phones the United States is used to.

"For a phone to be functional, it needs decent battery life. These feature phones have anywhere up to a week," continued Shapshak.

By 2016, Africa will have a billion mobile phone users, according to CNN.

Internet usage in Africa is "a unique environment where mobile technology have been adapted for a wide range of usages, from lowering information barriers and improving access to financial and health services to boosting commerce and bringing people together," explains CNN.

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The use of cell phones has influenced the country in many different ways. Transferring money, checking the authenticity of medicines, improving the flow of farm work by locating market prices and the weather and expressing culture through art are made readily available to those with mobile devices. In addition, the people of Africa have access to others around their country and to the outside world through social media

"The impact of Internet access via mobile devices on the continent has been a game changer on the continent," expressed manager of mobile disruptors at PayPal, Nmachi Jidenma to CNN. "Access to social networks has given youth a platform for self-expression and civic participation in ways that are having real impact on elections, governance and accountability."

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