Mobile phones get us out in the real world

First Txt Of The Year

In this essay for Vodafone's now defunct receiver, Levinson argues that the mobile phone is a tool that can get us out in the real world. Which we can then ignore as we keep our eyes glued to our iPhones.

Media we can carry with us have always been an important part of our lives. The Kodak camera allowed everyone to become a photographer at the end of the 19th century. Car and transistor radios brought people out of their living rooms, and made rock'n'roll literally a music of the road and street. The venerable book is itself a revolution in mobility, in contrast to carvings on walls which could be brought nowhere. But the little mobile phone dwarfs all of these accomplishments, because it allows people to talk to other people, any place the caller and the called may be, and it allows access to the Internet and all it provides. A book carried anywhere allows access to that book; a mobile phone carried anywhere allows access to all the electronic books, newspapers, magazines, and other services of the Web.

In a sense, a mobile phone in hand makes the world around you intelligent, responsive. Prior to the mobile phone, if you had a question, if you wanted to talk to someone, you had to go to a special place - a telephone box, or a home, or an office, or a library - to receive a response. Most places in the world - the beach, the street, the train - were unable to provide that. As beautiful, alluring, important as they might be, most places in the world were deaf and dumb as far as providing the information and the conversation you needed.

But more recently Jan Chipchase argues there is a downside:

Ten years ago we made a conscious effort to connect. Today, if you're an urban dweller in a city like London, New York or like me, living here in Tokyo you probably make a conscious effort to disconnect. For many of you reading this fully disconnecting is no longer a viable option or at the very least a deeply discomforting one - so ingrained are communication technologies in our daily life.

What can you do when you do not want to be reached? The people who have your mobile phone number can be limited, but if even one person has your number, sooner or later there will be a specific occasion when you will not be in the mood for a conversation with that person. You can adopt means of evasion. You hear your mobile phone ring, but later claim that you did not hear it - that you were in a pocket in which service was patchy. You can say your mobile phone was accidentally off, when it was on. In addition to all of its benefits, the mobile phone may have ushered in the golden age of the little white lie.

Cellphone - the jangling saviour by Paul Levinson

Mobile phones get us out in the real world

First Txt Of The Year In this essay for Vodafone's now defunct receiver, Levinson argues that the mobile phone is a tool that can get us out in the real world. Which we can then ignore as we keep our eyes glued to our iPhones.

Media we can carry with us have always been an important part of our lives. The Kodak camera allowed everyone to become a photographer at the end of the 19th century. Car and transistor radios brought people out of their living rooms, and made rock'n'roll literally a music of the road and street. The venerable book is itself a revolution in mobility, in contrast to carvings on walls which could be brought nowhere. But the little mobile phone dwarfs all of these accomplishments, because it allows people to talk to other people, any place the caller and the called may be, and it allows access to the Internet and all it provides. A book carried anywhere allows access to that book; a mobile phone carried anywhere allows access to all the electronic books, newspapers, magazines, and other services of the Web. In a sense, a mobile phone in hand makes the world around you intelligent, responsive. Prior to the mobile phone, if you had a question, if you wanted to talk to someone, you had to go to a special place - a telephone box, or a home, or an office, or a library - to receive a response. Most places in the world - the beach, the street, the train - were unable to provide that. As beautiful, alluring, important as they might be, most places in the world were deaf and dumb as far as providing the information and the conversation you needed.

But more recently Jan Chipchase argues there is a downside:

Ten years ago we made a conscious effort to connect. Today, if you're an urban dweller in a city like London, New York or like me, living here in Tokyo you probably make a conscious effort to disconnect. For many of you reading this fully disconnecting is no longer a viable option or at the very least a deeply discomforting one - so ingrained are communication technologies in our daily life.

What can you do when you do not want to be reached? The people who have your mobile phone number can be limited, but if even one person has your number, sooner or later there will be a specific occasion when you will not be in the mood for a conversation with that person. You can adopt means of evasion. You hear your mobile phone ring, but later claim that you did not hear it - that you were in a pocket in which service was patchy. You can say your mobile phone was accidentally off, when it was on. In addition to all of its benefits, the mobile phone may have ushered in the golden age of the little white lie.

Cellphone - the jangling saviour by Paul Levinson