Life is so much easier when you can just pick up your mobile phone to make an appointment, call a friend, or arrange a party. Life is easier when you can quickly text to say you are running late and tell your spouse to hold supper for awhile. It is easier when you remember one more thing for the grocery list and then quickly call your husband to get it before he leaves the store. A visit to Ikea is easier when you can keep tabs on your family via their phones - no more time spent looking for lost children or teenagers, no more time spent wandering up and down aisles wondering where on earth your friend disappeared as you turned your back just for a moment to look at the bargain of the century.
And that perfect upholstered chair that you think might go with your sofa? Just take a picture with your phone and take a look at it when you get home. You can find almost anything on any number of apps all designed just to make your life easier. But is it really easier? How do you feel when your personal space is invaded by someone else's conversation on their mobile phone?
We are now at a place in our technological culture where it has become common to unwittingly and often unwillingly become involved in the conversations of perfect strangers (Campbell & Yong, 2008). We have very little choice about what we hear while we are riding the bus, sitting at the park, or shopping at the mall. It is as if you are cast as an audience member at a play that you really had no intention to attend. This can cause involuntary embarrassment on your behalf for the person who is acting foolishly on his or her phone, but you might also feel aggravated with the extra 'noise' in your life. Has that made your life any easier? Might you feel trapped in someone else's idea of a imagined barrier. Just because someone's back is turned to you doesn't mean you are shut off from his or her conversation. Our ease and comfort in public spaces can quickly become difficulty and discomfort.
Another aspect of the 'telephony' world becoming more difficult is due to the unceasing promotion of the trendy side of what was once basic, mass communication but now is a personalized network; the phone is no longer simply for communication, but an extension of yourself, so much so that a person will choose a phone based on colour or status rather than capability (Campbell & Yong, 2008). 'Telephony' and the adoption of the mobile phone has become a major economic force in popular culture (Goggin, 2009). Is your life any easier when you have to spend so much time, money and effort just to keep up with the telephoning Joneses?
But if it is ease you are still looking for then you just might find it in mobile phone apps. You can download an app that will help you get to where you're going for dinner and an app that will help you track your calories while you're there. These apps are "visible, calculable and governable" (Goggin, 2011) making your life easier to manage and control. One needs to be aware though that the world of mobile phone apps is designed to be distributable control ( Walker, Stanton, Jenkins & Salmon, 2009). Information technology platforms, companies and organizations are deliberately focused on the evolution of the product that has no specific end, but is constantly adapting based on user demand and profitability. Nonetheless, that digital age is here to promote ease and perhaps that is the utopia that we are looking for: personal management, control over at least day-to-day communication in our lives, and contentment in our connecting.
References
Campbell, S. W., & Yong, J. P. (2008). Social implications of mobile telephony;the rise of personal communication society. Sociology Compass 2/2 , 371–387, 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00080.x.
Goggin, G. (2011, Vol. 22, No. 3). Ubiquitous apps: politics of openness in global mobile cultures . Digital Creativity, 148–159.
Goggin, G. (April 2009). Adapting the mobile phone; the iPad and its consumption. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2, 231–244.
Walker, G. H., Stanton, N. A., Jenkins P., D., & Salmon, P. M. (2009). From telephones to iPhones: Applying systems thinking to networked, interoperable products. Applied Ergonomics40, 206–215.
Goggin, G. (April 2009). Adapting the mobile phone; the iPad and its consumption. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2, 231–244.
And that perfect upholstered chair that you think might go with your sofa? Just take a picture with your phone and take a look at it when you get home. You can find almost anything on any number of apps all designed just to make your life easier. But is it really easier? How do you feel when your personal space is invaded by someone else's conversation on their mobile phone?
We are now at a place in our technological culture where it has become common to unwittingly and often unwillingly become involved in the conversations of perfect strangers (Campbell & Yong, 2008). We have very little choice about what we hear while we are riding the bus, sitting at the park, or shopping at the mall. It is as if you are cast as an audience member at a play that you really had no intention to attend. This can cause involuntary embarrassment on your behalf for the person who is acting foolishly on his or her phone, but you might also feel aggravated with the extra 'noise' in your life. Has that made your life any easier? Might you feel trapped in someone else's idea of a imagined barrier. Just because someone's back is turned to you doesn't mean you are shut off from his or her conversation. Our ease and comfort in public spaces can quickly become difficulty and discomfort.
Another aspect of the 'telephony' world becoming more difficult is due to the unceasing promotion of the trendy side of what was once basic, mass communication but now is a personalized network; the phone is no longer simply for communication, but an extension of yourself, so much so that a person will choose a phone based on colour or status rather than capability (Campbell & Yong, 2008). 'Telephony' and the adoption of the mobile phone has become a major economic force in popular culture (Goggin, 2009). Is your life any easier when you have to spend so much time, money and effort just to keep up with the telephoning Joneses?
But if it is ease you are still looking for then you just might find it in mobile phone apps. You can download an app that will help you get to where you're going for dinner and an app that will help you track your calories while you're there. These apps are "visible, calculable and governable" (Goggin, 2011) making your life easier to manage and control. One needs to be aware though that the world of mobile phone apps is designed to be distributable control ( Walker, Stanton, Jenkins & Salmon, 2009). Information technology platforms, companies and organizations are deliberately focused on the evolution of the product that has no specific end, but is constantly adapting based on user demand and profitability. Nonetheless, that digital age is here to promote ease and perhaps that is the utopia that we are looking for: personal management, control over at least day-to-day communication in our lives, and contentment in our connecting.
References
Campbell, S. W., & Yong, J. P. (2008). Social implications of mobile telephony;the rise of personal communication society. Sociology Compass 2/2 , 371–387, 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00080.x.
Goggin, G. (2011, Vol. 22, No. 3). Ubiquitous apps: politics of openness in global mobile cultures . Digital Creativity, 148–159.
Goggin, G. (April 2009). Adapting the mobile phone; the iPad and its consumption. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2, 231–244.
Walker, G. H., Stanton, N. A., Jenkins P., D., & Salmon, P. M. (2009). From telephones to iPhones: Applying systems thinking to networked, interoperable products. Applied Ergonomics40, 206–215.
Goggin, G. (April 2009). Adapting the mobile phone; the iPad and its consumption. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2, 231–244.