Here’s a nice bit of social commentary on the effect of mobile phones on people’s lives, both the positive and the negative. A few paragraphs:
“You access what you want, when you want it and how you want it,” said Ralph Vituccio, director of Media Development in Communications Design and an instructor in the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University.
“In my age group, you don’t see people who are accustomed to that kind of viewing,” said the 55-year-old instructor. “They’d rather sit down in a passive way and do it.”
Younger people want two things, choice and control, and they don’t care about anything else, he said.
While the concern is expressed that “Technology becomes a form of life. We mold ourselves to fit the technology as opposed to the technology fitting particular needs we have”, I think the way younger people use the phones indicates this won’t be a problem. After all, tehy want “choice and control”, and they have it. Many are in fact using mobile phones to control other areas of their life — such as getting friends to meet them on the corner rather than having to meet the parents. It’s just a question of familiarity…
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