Official Blog Post 1: Mobile Phones.

We live in a switched-on society, where having constant accesses to the internet, and the people around us is seen as being of the utmost importance. Sherry Turkle states in her TED talk ‘Connected,but Alone? that we have our mobile phones switched on 24/7 and sleep with them next to us or with us in our beds almost as if they are a part of our physical being (2012). Mobile phones are so attached to people that they are like a secondary appendage or an attachment to our already formed limbs (Richardson 2007,pp.66-67). Mobile phones are so engrained into our lives that we must check them every spare moment during our days. 

The department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy demonstrates that 82 per cent of people aged 14 years and older in Australia used a mobile phone in June 2006 (Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy 2013). The statistics for older mobile phone users were as follows 18-24 and 25-39 year old users had the highest recorded mobile phone usage percentages at 94 and 91 per cent in June 2006 (Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy 2013). This, however, in recent years has jumped to 21.1 million users for people of all ages (Department of Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy n.d.). Isn’t it scary to think that 21 Million people are connected to each other through their mobile phones?

(Mindjet 2013)

Mobile phones, however, are not just being used for traditional things such as taking phone calls and texting friends; they are now being utilised to send emails, surf the web, and connect to social media sites. Mobile phones are a technology of convergence, allowing us to do a multitude of things from one small device that is carried around with us everywhere we go (Swinburne Online Student Resources 2013). 

If I think about how my day is spent, I can say with some certainty that a lot of it is spent using my mobile phone to check emails, check Facebook and twitter accounts and to text or call people.

Think about how you spend your day. Do you find yourself constantly needing to check your phone? Do you feel as though your phone has become a huge part of you? Without your mobile device, does it feel like a part of you is missing? 

References

Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy 2013, Mobile phone users by area, Catalogue no. 57471, Australian Government, Canberra.  

Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy n.d., Telecommunications, Statistical Snapshot, accessed 1 December 2013 from DBCDE database.  

Mindjet 2013, ‘The Productivity Pantry: 50 Resources to Help You Get Things Done Right’[Image] Productivity, accessed 2 December 2013 <http://blog.mindjet.com/category/productivity/>.

Richardson, I. 2007, 'Pocket Technospaces: the Bodily Incorporation of Mobile Media',Continuum Journal of media and cultural studies,vol.12, no.2, pp.205-215, accessed 2 December 2013, <http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=93477f5f-1cd3-4e24-839b-2ff9c30fa8b6%40sessionmgr4002&vid=2&hid=4201>.

Swinburne Online Student  Resources 2013, ‘Week 4 Mobile Devices’, accessed 1 December 2013, <https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2FdisplayLearningUnit%3Fcourse_id%3D_149973_1%26content_id%3D_3796663_1%26framesetWrapped%3Dtrue>.

Turkle, S. 2012, ‘Connected, but alone?,’ TED talk, accessed 1 December 2013, <http://bit.ly/HdCWnM>.