Lightening/thunder and a mobile phone (safety issue myth)

[Gollum]

Yesterday there was thunder storm and there were sparks coming out of almost every power socket and ceiling fans of the house. On top of that i was forced to switch off both my mobile phones by my aunt.
People in my locality tell me that i should not use a mobile during a thunder storm.
I don't think anything would happen if you are inside the house. Am i wrong?
The house with a slab roof which has a mesh of iron rods inside and metal windows are good to provide a shielding effect. So how the heck can lightening reach a mobile phone which is inside the house.

 

[funkysourav]

Gauss effect
in a thunderstorm, you should be perfectly safe inside
a car or a house(if properly earthed and has lightning rod)

but i am really surprised by the sparks from the sockets

are you sure the house has a proper earthing?
please contact your builder/architect/surveyor

 

[Gollum]

Well if lightning hits the power lines sparks will come from sockets. Its observed all over south. But my main point is whether it is safe to use a cellphone inside the house(during thunder storm) be it playing games or surfing the net or talking.

 

[6x6]

^ have you seen sparking from sockets caused by lightening? is it with some wires loosely inserted in to socket or without any wire / plug/ load connected?

regarding cellphone - nothing going to happen

 

[Gollum]

As soon as lightning strikes. Sparks come of from the open circuit board. Meaning there is nothing connected to the board. The sparks jump from one hole to another.

 

[mnnueltuttu]

I don't think that using mobile phones while lightning is dangerous.Because mobile phones don't receive the lightning or high voltae current if the high voltage create some kind of ionisation which leads to formation of electromagnetic wave which inturn may affect your phone.Which is highly rare

 

[6x6]

As soon as lightning strikes. Sparks come of from the open circuit board. Meaning there is nothing connected to the board. The sparks jump from one hole to another.

very strange. I think for jumping from one hole to other needs voltages greater than 1kV. That would burn everything connected to supply.
Using mobile is still safe, provided it is not connected to supply via charger or usb connection to pc etc.