Journal Article
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The development of technology, such as the mobile phone, which has the potential to facilitate social change fuels extreme visions of the future. In their article May and Hearn discuss the utopian and dystopian visions of a technological future that were common in the 20th century. This led me to a fascinating article relating modern day USA to Orwell and Huxley’s famous novels, 1984 and Brave New World entitled 2011: A Brave New World. There is a torrent of literature both factual and fictional coinciding with the rise of the Internet, which presents a both a utopian vision of the benefits and a dystopian view of the consequences which can be anticipated through the widespread adoption of the Internet (Howcroft and Fitzgerald, 1998). Some utopian aspects include many medical applications such as using the mobile phone to remotely monitor asthma patients (Asmi et al.), STD tracking (Newell, 2001) and social implications such as alerts during emergencies via mobile phones and text messaging, village phones empowering women (Aminuzzaman et al., 2003), equality for deaf people (Power and Power, 2004) and lower rates of smoking as the acquisition of a mobile phone becomes a sign of maturity (Steggles and Jarvis, 2003. p36). The ability to work in any place at anytime using mobile media should enhance productivity and economic growth. On the other hand, the spectre of cancer resulting from tissue damage from radiation (Hocking and Westerman, 2002), the problem of bullying and the lack of self reliance due to constant connectivity (Plant, 2003) are relatively minor aspects of a dystopian view compared with the revolutionary uses of mobile media that have arisen recently in Northern Africa and the U.K. This is a situation involving what Rhinegold (2002), calls “smart mobs” and Kopomaa (2004), calls “swarming tribes”. This interview with Rhinegold and Kopomaa on ABC radio gives further insight into the thoughts of these social scientists. The use of mobile phones as triggers in the despicable, 2004 train bombings in Madrid was an evil application of the technology.
Rapid technological change seems inevitable and by its nature, necessitates particular social changes (Williams and Edge, 1994). However, technology is not beyond the realm of values and beliefs. Separating technology from the society which embraces it and then citing it as the mechanism for social change is nonsensical. The opportunity for the provision of more information through improved technology will not produce a different type of society (Lyon,1988; Webster, 1995, p 11). Technological use is shaped by society, as Dahlbom and Mathiassen point out: "Technology is what its users perceive it to be" (Dahlbom and Mathiassen, 1996). It is in the realities of organizations and social settings that technologies are diffused and implemented; these realities defy predictions based on the capabilities of technologies (Dutton, 1996).
Hearn and May discuss the shift away from the marketing of goods and services to that of a vast array of cultural experiences including music, travel, fashion, cuisine and high-tech entertainment. This marketing has become part of online life, as we are bombarded by advertising on every commercial website. The new features incorporated into the mobile phone which enable the sending of words, audio and images from almost anywhere confirms its status a “new information medium” (Dobrowolski et al., 2000 in Nicholas, 2000). Thus the mobile phone is becoming a major conduit for this information as it is the main way people access the internet, particularly in lower socioeconomic areas in the developed world and in the developing world (Mobile phone statistics, 2011)
The Internet also enables the collection of personal information which advertisers can then access in order to target consumers using their previous purchases as a guide. I accept that data collection is occurring on many levels and personally would prefer advertising that caters to my interests. An extreme scenario of this type of marketing is one of the themes in the dystopian novel “Feed” by M.T.Anderson. Electronically mediated entertainment is fast becoming the centre of a new hyper-capitalism, a world where each person's life becomes a commercial market (Rifkin, 2000). May and Hearn discuss the marketing of mobile phone ring tones and the billions of dollars spent on personalised ring tones by people world-wide, a phenomenon which raises copyright issues still to be resolved. I was watching a children's television show yesterday on ABC 3 where two friends fell out over the changing of a ring tone on a mobile phone. In post-modernity, consumer objects “express one’s identity … consumption is part of self-construction” (Poster, 2004. p 242).
The authors' concluding statements indicate that they believe that the potential for social connectivity is advantageous in a world that seems to be constantly speeding up and where people have less time to meet in person. Applications such as facetime on the Ipad are wonderful ways to communicate - it's the Jetsons come to life! The authors' final assertion is that there are many questions still to be addressed, in particular the factors involved with the creation of content relating to marketing, changing technological expectations and privacy concerns. The authors state that a more traditional approach, as has been taken with other communication and media technologies, to the research involving the mobile phone is needed as it continues to infiltrate more and more of our daily lives.
Karen
Hi Jayne, this is a topic in which I am very interested. You mentioned that the development of technology such as the mobile phone has the potential to facilitate social change and I can see this as directly relevant to schools. In my experience, secondary students view their mobiles as an “extension” of themselves, never wanting to turn them off or relinquish them to the stern-faced teacher on duty. In fact, Woodill has observed that "students respond to requests to shut off their phones with a sense of panic, a feeling that they will be cut off from their world of personal relationships. This feeling, taken to its extreme, has been dubbed "nomophobia…” This social connectedness is paramount to our students. I feel, like Sharples, that the main obstacle to using mobile phones in schools is social not technical.“Many teachers have little or no understanding of the context and learning outside the classroom and even less about new mobile technologies.” If the digital divide between them and students is not bridged, mobile phones will continue to be seen as destructive rather than constructive in the classroom. I firmly believe what Wegner espouses: “Education can no longer afford to ignore the impact mobile technology has on our students and their lives. If we ask them to switch it off, then we turn off the relevance to the rest of their life………”
ReplyDeleteReferences
http://gwegner.edublogs.org (Wegner)
http://www.mlearn.org.za/CD/papers/Sharples.pdf (Sharples) http://www.slideshare.net/dajbelshaw/exploring-mobile-considerations-and-opportunities (Woodill)