Social Impact of Mobile Phones
Thursday, June 17th, 2004 at 1633Don’t worry about the post title, I’m just seeing if Google picks me up.
Mobile phones have wrecked peoples’ ability to co-ordinate a plan. It is true. 10 years ago when I was riding around on a wee BMX, no more than 1 phonecall to each friend was required to bring them, without fail, to the designated meeting point for whatever reason. Try the same thing tomorrow and you’ll have consumed £5 in phone credit before everyone has even agreed to go in the first place and that’s before people actually get underway.
Admit it, you’ve been there. You call, you get a maybe, they’ll “text” you back (Oh my how I hate that turn of phrase…), you get a message a little while later saying “Sure, where?”. You call or “text” them to give them the details. This continues until all parties have been notified.
Shortly before you depart yourself you will have dealt with several calls confirming the location, that someone can’t make it even though they said they could, someone can’t come as they’ve had a better offer and someone has forgotten if it was this Tuesday or next week. Oh and you get a wrong number from Romania and a robot voice promising that you’ve won “One of the following great prizes”.
En route to the destination more calls flood in though you’re not sure why and upon arriving, half of the people are late, some are lost, some turn up next Tuesday and there’s a Romanian at the restaurant who’s voice you swear blind you recognise.
Why? I have reason to believe it’s got something to do with how humans respond to pressure and deadlines. See, if the first phonecall is your last and from that point on you have no way of contacting the organiser, then the details become concrete. Only if something disasterous happens will you seek further contact with the guy organising the event. However, the ubiquitous nature of the mobile means that you think in the back of your mind that you can get hold of the guy instantly, regardless, so there is no motivation to remember the details and also, to stick to them. You’re running late? Just call, it’ll be OK. Can’t remember where you’re meeting? No worries, just “text” them. Etc etc etc.
I wonder how far things will have to go before people other than me start to find this annoying ? Maybe they won’t, maybe most people will begin to accept that a simple trip to the cinema should require 4 phonecalls, 3 SMS messages and a 2 hour meeting window? My mobile only receives calls, I’m too cheap to put credit on it, perhaps this is why I’m not taking the slide into the disorganised world of the mobile masses. My aim is to remain punctual, afterall, I am British 😉
I agree entirely. Lack of planning and commitment based on the assumption that an instant communication can always change things to accomodate one’s own actions regardless of the needs of others. Strikes me also as rude when people answer a mobile call whilst already engaged in a one to one conversation with someone, or even worse, in the middle of a meeting. In days gone by secretaries would have fielded the calls (or the phone would have remained unanswered) and only interrupted in an emergency. It’s as if some people are so arrogant as to believe that by answering a call in such circumstances they are endowing themselves with some sort of importance …:( sad….they are just downright rude IMHO..As for the ‘British’ bit..you are English, and as Eartha Kitt once remarked in a song..’..an Englishman takes his time..’ 😉
I gave up my mobile 5 months ago and couldn’t be happier. If people tells me to meet them somewhere at some time, they damn well better show up, and I’m now free to be pissed right to their faces if they don’t. And I save $50/month. The mobile phone is telecommunication’s manifestation of society’s obsession with shirking commitment. One lousy thing I’ve noticed, at least living here in the Swamp of Despair that is Washington, DC, is the evaporation of call boxes/phone booths in public places. Of course, since it IS Washington, DC, there’s really no one in the local area you’d want to call and have a friendly chat with, anyway.
looks like the phone companies have done the advertising job they wanted then and it will probably only get worse.
Its probably a good reason why I only really have my mobile for important things like phoneing home and asking whats for dinner. damn I’m guessing thats not important lol.
well anyway i tend not to use my phone that much but i tend to recieve a few with the same context