Mobile Madness!!

Now this would be a topic mum would be proud of haha. Being a 19 year old girl, mum is constantly reminding me of the dangers of being ‘glued’ to my phone and constantly complains I give my phone and laptop more attention than I do her. Yes mum I admit it, I have a problem.  I have been sucked up into the world of cyber space and cannot get enough. Having a smart phone make it so easy for me. Whether I’m waiting at the doctors or sitting on a train I can always stay connected. Pretty much if I can have my smart phone without getting caught or in trouble for it, you will no doubt find it in my hand.

Although it’s very rewarding knowing that you can communicate with friends 24/7 there are social costs of being switched on 24/7. A major concern I believe is Privacy. Although it seems silly to say and most people would argue just to not answer or reply advancing technology is making this harder to be done without conflict. If I am out to dinner with friends or the timing is not ideal to reply to a text I usually leave it till an appropriate time and use the little white lie of ‘ I just got your text now’. Unfortunately I can’t even use this anymore as iphones now notify you as soon as your message has been opened by the receiver. The second major cost of being switched on 24/7 is its distraction. It is extremely addictive and distracting and is hard to know when to disconnect yourself and focus on the more important things in life.

I don’t know if it has anything to do with the fact with my age or the generation I’ve grown up in but I would find it extremely difficult to go a week without my phone. Mum and Dad thought it would be entertaining to steal my phone for a day and I didn’t find it quite as humorous. I felt completely lost without it and very paranoid, What if I get lost and can’t call anyone? What if someone’s trying to contact met? I felt extremely disconnected from the entire world.

Mobile phones closely relate to the theories regarding Cyborgs. It’s true; a mobile device is something we have added to our lives in order to fit into our environment. Due to our interaction with computers and mobile devices we are all in fact Cyborgs. A piece of footage I found very interesting was “Amber Case- We are all Cyborgs now” and recommend you all to take a look “http://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html”. I believe mobile devices will just continue to grow rapidly in the coming years. We are all spending more and more time on our phones as they are enabling us to complete more and more tasks. In future I believe phones may be more voice recognised and image quality will increase. The rest, we will let time tell that one.

REFERENCES

Geser, H, 2006, “Is the Cell Phone Undermining the Social Order?: Understanding Mobile Technology from a Sociological Perspective”, University Of St Galen, EBL EBook Library, viewed 29^th November 2012

Gluesing, J, 2009, “Mobile Work, Mobile Lives ‘Identity in a virtual world: The coevolution of technology, work and lifestyle”, Wiley-Blackwell, EBL EBook Library, viewed 28^th November 2012

TED2012, “Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?”, April 2012, viewed 28^th November 2012, <http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html>.

TEDWoman, “Amber Case: We are all Cyborgs now”, January 2011, viewed 29^th November 2012, < http://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html>.