The Economist has a survey on Mobility in its latest issue, as how the tools of mobility are having an impact on Human societies and leading to change in communication and behavioural patterns across the world. Excepts:
It also notes that with mobile phones, family members and friends today are more regularly in touch with each other compared to the past, which creates an emotional space around the person where he might choose to ignore those physically around him:SHERRY TURKLE, the psychologist at MIT who studies the nexus between people and gadgets, believes that the tools of mobility are leading to “the emergence of a new type of person”. In the distant, landline-dominated past, she says, people thought: “I have a feeling so I want to make a call.” Young people today, including Ms Turkle's teenage daughter, seem to be thinking instead: “I want to have a feeling, so I need to make a call.” What she means is that there is something inorganic, derivative and inauthentic about a lot of mobile communication.
Some interesting stuff there. Go read.With mobile phones, on the other hand, people call, text or e-mail one another constantly throughout the day. Since they are always, in effect, contacting a person rather than a place, and since the receiver can see the caller's name, and probably his picture, they often dispense with greetings altogether. The exchanges now tend to be frequent and short. People expect less content but instead a feeling of permanent connection, as though they were in fact together during the entire time between their physical meetings.
[..]The potential problem with connected presence is that it usually excludes other people who may be physically present. In situations that might once have been an opportunity to talk to a stranger—waiting for a bus or boarding an aeroplane, say—people now fill the time with a few messages to parents, lovers or friends. This strengthens the strong ties, but weakens, or even cuts, the weak ties in society. In some cases, says Mr Ling, it leads to “bounded solidarity”, when cliques become so turned in on themselves that they all but stop interacting with the wider society around them.
Related stuff: Jan Chipchase writes an interesting and insightful blog on how users across various societies are getting influenced by technology, and how this interaction might shape the future tools of mobility. Go through his blog if you find this topic interesting.
Note: The Economist's article are free online only for one week, after that they go into subscription only access. If any of you is not having its subscription and is interested in reading the survey, I'd suggest you to do it before 17th of April.
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