The U.N. education agency reported a new study shows cellphones can help improve the literacy skills of people in developing countries.
The study was published on Wednesday in celebration of World Book and Copyright Day, according to PC Tech Magazine.
UNESCO worked with Worldreader and Nokia to conduct the study in seven countries, which were Ghana, India, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
In the developing world, physical books are scarce, while there is a plentiful amount of mobile phones, MarketWatch reported. The responses of almost 5,000 people in these countries showed that the use of mobile devices in these areas can bring opportunities of education and reduce illiteracy rates.
Worldreader's free mobile ready app averages about 200,000 users per month, and is evidence of a high demand for mobile reading in these areas.
"We now have two years of data proving that people are spending hundreds of hours a month reading short and long form text, using basic feature and Android phones," said Elizabeth Hensick Wood, director of digital publishing and mobile platforms at Worldreader. "As part of this research, we interviewed dozens of individuals, ranging from students to teachers to parents, and all told a similar story: they do not have access to paper books, they are thrilled to now have thousands of free books on their mobile phones and they are now reading more than ever."
The study looked over 4,000 surveys to find that one third of the participants read stories to children from mobile phones, and that females read about 6 times more often on mobile devices than males, PC Tech Magazine reported.
The results showed that both men and women read more often when they start reading on a mobile device, and that cellphones are used by a lot of neo- and semi-literate people to look for text they are able to read.
The findings also suggest that most people enjoy reading more on their mobile phones, and that reading on these devices often reverses people's negative attitudes about reading, MarketWatch reported.
The International Telecommunication Union estimated that 6 billion out of the 7 billion people on Earth have access to a working cellphone, PC Tech Magazine reported.
The research serves to help governments, organizations and individuals looking to use mobile devices to spread literacy and reading around the world.
