Consequences of Mobile Phones for Everyday Life - Assignment Example

Consequences of Mobile Phones for Everyday Life Science fiction of the past depicted an array of technologies, some of which have come true, some of which haven't. The Jetsons had flying cars, maid robots, floating cities, video calls and conveyors to get around. But they also had full-wall TVs which some rich consumers can have. Fahrenteit 451 featured full-wall televisions as well and anticipated some of the directions of consumer culture. But what almost no one anticipated was the idea that it would be ubiquitous as early as the mid-to-late 2000s for most people in the West to have the ability to contact others constantly, anywhere there was radio transmission, using an electronic device that can fit in the pocket yet is powerful enough to run video games, play television shows and movies, access streaming content and use applications ranging from alarm clocks to calculators. The social consequences of such an amazing technology have yet to be felt, and it is likely that we will be coping for decades. One of the most obvious impacts that mobile phones have on everyday life is the extreme temptation to talk on the phone while driving. Even when this doesn't reduce the hands someone has available for driving, it tends to distract. Many jurisdictions in America and the UK have created or are debating the drafting of laws that ban the usage of mobile phones in cars except for the usage of hands-free headsets. The fact that this would even be a problem was impossible to anticipate until recently: Mobile phones were once known as car phones, and in the UK they still often are. But mobile phones also have had more subtle effects. The ability to be contacted at any time has increased time pressures on people. In one Calvin and Hobbes comic, a comic from two decades go, Calvin's father complains that fax machines and other electronic devices don't increase leisure time by making work more efficient but decrease it by making people have expectations for faster service: Something that used to take a week and be considered a rush job would be considered unbelievably tardy. Mobile phones amplify this pressure. If they have GPS features, they can be used by the government or by parents to monitor someone's location, which can have wide-reaching privacy implications, as well as implications for criminals and police. But it might be possible, if an employee doesn't monitor auto-updating features that tell a server where someone is, to be caught lying to a boss about being sick, raising further privacy implications. Employers can call employees or text them constantly. This can cause employees to have even less time that they can perceive as their own. A mobile phone becomes an imposition sometimes, and people seeking out vacation or time off often try to turn off the phone so as not to worry about harassment. Another problem can be cyber-stalking or, less intrusively, bothering by friends, family, spouses or loved ones. Being constantly available allows people to monitor people, or to exert relationship control, or to nag. Mobile phones have also transformed the ways we've communicated with each other. This is a step in a longer process of world-shrinking. When the only way to communicate with someone even a few hundred miles is a letter, one carefully considers what one has to say, knowing that the nearest response might be days, weeks or months away. But now that people can communicate not only through the mail but also on the phone, mobile phone, texts, e-mails, and instant messaging, communication can become trite or irrelevant. People can use Twitter to update each other on where they're going, what they're doing or how a sandwich at a local pub tastes. It often seems deplorable how communication is degraded and people speak to each other about trite, trivial, unimportant things. It has also degraded grammar and spelling: People use text speak in e-mails, instant messaging and texting, with acronyms and misspellings being ubiquitous. Ironically, however, the complaint that this is reducing the quality of writing or of English education may be silly given that, as the future goes on, communication itself may become more oriented towards text speak and those norms may eclipse more traditional writing, spelling, grammar and syntactical norms. As mobile phones become more and more common, they start changing the objects people carry with them. In the past, it might be more common for someone to carry in a backpack, satchel or in their pocket a laptop, calculator, beeper, etc. But many of those things have become obviated by mobile phones and, to a lesser extent, tablet computing. A cell phone can increasingly do many of the things that people need to have a laptop for: Check e-mail, get directions, etc. Mobile phones thus change the way we travel, move around and relate to our world. Mobile phones change the way we navigate and find places, too. A mobile phone allows people to not only find where a restaurant is but also how much the restaurant costs, if it is open or not, what coupons might be available (and arrange to print those at a copy shop or at home) and what specials might be there, and to see the reviews. GPS and directions reduces the time people spend navigating, but that also changes other things. It makes traveling to a location less stressful. It reduces the need to buy maps and to print out directions or to get directions from friends. People set aside less time to get directions and to plan out trips because there is an emergency option. Indeed, the notion of reviews points to a whole new way mobile phones allow people to process information. Cloud-sourced and crowd-sourced information will do more than cause people to avoid a bad restaurant or try a good hole-in-the-wall. Egyptian protesters used Blackberries even during a tech blackout (Ungerleider, 2011). Information updated in real time from people on the ground can be used to guide protests, avoid traffic, reduce congestion and make travel more efficient, help in manhunts or searches for fugitives, assist in community policing, etc. People use cell phones to coordinate with friends, not just in the obvious way like calling each other but also more complex ways. Cell phones can be used to echolocate someone in a crowd by calling the phone and setting ringers to maximum. GPS location can be used to coordinate. In car caravans, people can make sure not to lose each other and be less concerned about crowding which can cause traffic or dangerous problems as merges and exits are coordinated. Mobile phones are also objects of fashion. A Blackberry indicates professionalism, a small pink phone can communicate femininity. People's cell phones can become a key part of their life, a personalised expression of deep individuality. Ironically, this is true even as cell phones are replaced constantly and even though they are mass consumer products. Mobile phones transform the way we consume media. If someone's favorite show is on the telly, it no longer dominates their life or their schedule. Again, part of this is because mobile phones are merely extending other forces, like Internet television, Hulu, etc. But even on a laptop or a desktop computer, there are some controls to watching media, some constraints on time and space. With a mobile phone, someone can watch media anywhere they wish, at any time and any space. This transforms the way people consume media, the way they get news, the way they interact with media. In addition, they can then comment on Hulu or on YouTube, making the viewing of media a collaborative enterprise. Camera phones are immensely transformative of social life. Privacy is reduced because anything that occurs in a public space becomes a possible viral video watched by millions on YouTube. This ironically has paradoxical effects on people's behavior. Some people deliberately engage in jackassery in order to be seen by people on YouTube, while others undoubtedly constrain their behavior to avoid problems. But they also improve security. People can get pictures of dangerous things at any time they need, whether it be a broken element of their flat, an assault or a pending assault. It thus also controls for bad behavior. And every moment can become a photographic moment, democratizing art. Thus, mobile phones transform almost every aspect of life, from play to work, day and night, the way we interact with friends and family. It is still unclear how phones will change our life, especially since they are constantly changing in terms of what they offer. Sociological study will need to carefully monitor the changes to society these phones prompt in the years to come. Works Cited Ungerleider, N. 2011, “How Egyptian Protestors Use BlackBerrys In A Tech Blackout”, Fast Company, January 31. Read More