No, I don't want to go out with you

One of the fun things about new technology is guessing how it will be used. There is always the way you, the designer, intended it to be used of course, but what about the ways you never thought of. Sometimes that can be a big problem, when the technology is safety-critical and people start using short cuts to make their lives easier, but in a way that compromises the safety system. Other times it just means people jump on an obvious opportunity to make their lives easier. Mobile phones have done that for women.

Some blokes assume that a woman on her own in a bar must be "available", and given they think a lot of themselves, it follows she must fancy them. Getting such over-amorous men to get the message that you don't actually think they re God's gift to women and you actually dont want a drink with them used to be a bit of a pain.

Then came the mobile - a tool for communicating with people you weren't with you might have thought? Turns out, as most women know, it is also a great technology for saying "Push-off" to over-enthusiastic men who are heading your way. Picking up your mobile and start talking or texting is a sure way to get the message across! A recent study into the way we use mobiles found that 54% of women under 25 had used their phone that way.