Cell Phones Changing Social Group Communication

Mortimer.CA writes "An interesting article on how cell phones are changing the way people interact and get together in Japan. Some interesting quotations: 'To not have a keitai (cell phone) is to be walking blind, disconnected from just-in-time information on where and when you are in the social networks of time and place.' And the new social faux pas: 'One college student I spoke to described leaving one's phone at home or letting the battery die as "the new taboo."' The article mentions the book Smart Mobs which was mentioned on Slashdot before. I keep thinking how Marshal McLuhan said that our new inventions change the way we view the world. This is 'obvious' now, but was quite a new idea when he thought of it. In the 40s and 50s you "needed" to get a (land line) phone, then it was cars, email, and now cell phones. What's next? Is it simply a matter of keeping up with the Joneses?"

Comments

Disruption

[prof187]

By sending messages like "Can you talk on the phone now?" or "Are you awake?" text messagers spare each other the rude awakening and disruption of a sudden phone call.

Wouldn't it wake them up just as easily from the phone ringing when getting a text message as it would if they just got a phone call in the first place?

We'll see who's laughing...

[Quaoar]

...when everyone in Japan ends up with a mysterious head cancer.

Re:We'll see who's laughing...

[SlashdotLemming]

Don't worry, they'll adapt.
Brain tumors will become a new fetish.

Taboos through the ages...

[$$$$$exyGal]

Taboos through the ages:

• 14,000BC - Eating your dead parents.
• 1200AD - Using your left hand to wipe your butt and eat your berries.
• 1690AD - Having sex with your parents.
• 2003AD - letting your cellphone battery die.
• 2015AD - having 3d virtual sex with your parents.

Marshall

[bernz]

I keep thinking how Marshal McLuhan said that our new inventions change the way we view the world. This is 'obvious' now, but was quite a new idea when he thought of it. In the 40s and 50s you "needed" to get a (land line) phone, then it was cars, email, and now cell phones. What's next? Is it simply a matter of keeping up with the Joneses?

ALVY
I mean, d- He can give you - Do you hafta give it so loud? I mean, aren't you ashamed to pontificate like that? And - and the funny part of it is, M-Marshall McLuhan, you don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan's ... work!

MAN IN LINE
[Overlapping] Wait a minute! Really? Really? I happen to teach a class at Columbia called "TV Media and Culture"! So I think that my insights into Mr. McLuhan - well, have a great deal of validity.

ALVY
Oh, do yuh?

MAN IN LINE
Yes.

ALVY
Well, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here. So ... so, here, just let me - I mean, all right. Come over here ... a second.

MCLUHAN
[To the man in line] I hear - I heard what you were saying. You - you know nothing of my work. You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing.

ALVY
[To the camera] Boy, if life were only like this!

The Jones'?

[Montgomery Burns III]

More like keeping up with the Kim's

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[jgerman]

Ok let's keep going back, before most people had cars everyone walked. So there's no need for cars. God forbid technology comes along to make life easier.

The new taboo

[bmckeever]

'One college student I spoke to described leaving one's phone at home or letting the battery die as "the new taboo."'

Great! Just what the Japanese need - another way to lose face.

Re:Am I the only that hates cell phones?

[domebot]

OMG!!! When did they remove the "off" switch on cell phone????