For the essay on Mobile phones and their Impact on society I studied a varied amount of sources some of which are based on studies and some of which are based on opinions. The usefulness of these sources in my study will be discussed in this review.
The most important source for me is “The Mobile Connection – The cell phones impact on society”, by Rich ling.
The book studies firstly how mobile phone shave been adopted into society. For example, it is described how two different types of people are compared to each other. One, feels the need to have an expensive phone as his social circle have them, and feels the need for one to have some weight so that he can sense and feel that he has one at all times.
The other person however, has no regard for the costs of the phone besides how much the bill is. This person only requires a phone for contact, not to feel “socially accepted”. It is then followed on with a comparison to possessions, for example cars. (Rich ling (2004, p.33)
Further on, the book describes how mobile phones impact security. For example, it compares the need of being connected in situations of panic, such as critical accidents and injury (Rich Ling (2004, p.36) to how it can enable terrorist activities. Examples included mention terrorist Attacks in Bali (Indonesia) and ones in Jakarta (Indonesia) (Rich Ling (2004, p.37)
The book continues on with discussing how mobile phones can help co-ordinate social events (Rich Ling (2004, p.61). It makes conclusions on how mobile phones allow for constant changes to events to be updated but also how it can remove the personal feel from arrangements with methods such as sms (short messaging service) being used. (Rich Ling(2004, p.81)
The book spends a vast amount of time discussing how teens are affected by mobile phones. It includes a diagram which shows the usage of mobile by teens by age in Norway, 2001. (Rich Ling, 2004, p87). It also discusses how younger and younger children are using mobile phones, mimicking possibly those older around them. (Rich Ling, 2004, p97).
The final part of the book which is of relevance is chapter 6, which discusses the intrusive nature of mobile telephony.
It discusses how a person can switch social situations in an instant, interrupting a current social situation changing the person who was previously being conversed with social situation. (Rich ling (2004, p137)
it also discusses how mobile phone conversations often induce others involuntarily into eavesdropping. It discusses how it ahs the potential to reveal inner secrets to others, and cause embarrassment to the users of the mobile device. (Rich Ling (2004, p143).
Ling, Rich. 2004. The Mobile Connection. 1st ed. Morgan Kaufmann.
A news article describes to readers how to deal with “The Cell Phone culture”
This source discusses how the writer feels they are the new cigarette. It also describes how it feels like the transport people to a distant world when they are using them “like a child reading a Harry Potter Book”.
The writers view is rather cynical, and is highly opinionated.
Bob Schieffer, 2005. Focus: ‘Coping With The Cell Phone Culture. CBS news, [internet] 24July. Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/25/opinion/schieffer/main711391.shtml
[Accessed 20 October 2009]
To conclude, there is a vast array of information regarding how mobile phones (cell phones) are impacting culture and society. Much of this information is opinionated and comes in the forms of short editorial articles online, posts in web forums or in blogs. However, the most useful research is in the book “The Mobile Connection”. It contains a well spaced out, organised and data rich study on the impact. It has a few downfalls in that it focuses heavily on the youth.
The information gathered here and available further online and in journals will be helpful in concluding the question of The Mobile Phones impact on Society.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Kevin,
ReplyDeleteYou need to write this in a better style - at the moment you are speaking from yourself, whereas you need to write from the third person. All that is required is a synopsis of the writers ideas, so for instance with the author Rich Ling you only really need to cite him in your text once. We only need to see Ling 2004 in the text, not his first name - you can add page nos, but this can be confusing when reading a lot of references in the text. The Bob Shieffer reference should only be Shieffer 2005 - we don not require the whole URL, this will go in your reference page. I would suggest that you need a couple more souces - have you tried newpaper cuttings or the BBC website, where they report on incidents in the press and will point you to related articles.