Some Societal Impacts of Mobile Phones in 15 Societies
The mobile phone and other wireless technologies are rapidly transforming aspects of human experience. Although mobile phones are highly valued tools for communicating, conducting business, and for maintaining social ties, they can also be disruptive. I have been researching impacts of mobile phones in 15 countries, specifically how mobile phones have impacted people's daily habits and how people in many cultures are experiencing new challenges in incorporating this powerful and personal technology into established cultural practices. Problems include conflicts between privacy and public space, managing simultaneous contexts, a lack of new forms of etiquette for managing competing demands and duties, intrusion of cell phone cameras, as well as conflicts between "liberation" (new personal autonomy) and "control" (new accessibility to others). New technologies impact cultural practices and cultures impact how new technologies are used. The societies looked at so far include Australia, China, Brazil, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Lebanon, Russia, the U.S., Taiwan, Norway, and Korea. The societies range in size from small to large (e.g. India 1100 million, Norway 4.5 million) and in penetration rate of cell phones. This project has been conducted in collaboration with NTT DoCoMo in Japan.