Mobile Technology in a Wireless Era

After reading the article I can say that the behaviors discussed in Cellphones in public: social interactions in a wireless era still valid today. In five years technology has evolved and changed, but the human behavior to technology remains almost the same. People have adapted to the new technology, but their behavior almost did not change. Mobile phones still affect every aspect of our lives. People still use the technology to communicate with people in every city or country. New technology is advertised everyday by the media. Technology continues to be a blend between body image, fashion and popularity. This blend affects children, teenagers, and adults. In addition, restrictions to cell phone use remain almost the same. For example, theaters and classrooms still prohibit cell phone use.

The social terms defined by the study are not exactly accurate for our time, but I can say that they are very precise describing the human behavior and technology today. The concepts that Humphreys mentions in the study are still valid today. For example, there still people that prefer to be alone (singles) and people that prefer to be in a group (withs). I think that technology did not change the behavior of the “single” and “withs,” but instead reinforced them. For example, people that like to be alone, now have the chance to read the news, visit their social networks, check their email, chat with their friends, etc. This new technology reinforces the ‘single’ behavior by allowing people to spend more time alone without being bothered.

In the same way, the "withs" behavior is being reinforced by the technology. In fact, groups of people that share the same smart phones or iphones are likely to be together. If someone calls and disturbs the “withs” face-to-face communication, the other “with” could be chatting or surfing the web wile the other person finish the communication with the caller or the ‘cross talk’. The new technology helps the ‘withs’ not to feel alone when their friends are talking by phone. This new technology reinforces the relationship between the ‘withs’ because they spend more time together even if some of them are talking by cell phones or reading something online on their iphones.

The new cell phones allow people to respect even more the privacy of their friends’ conversations. When their friends are engaged in a “crosstalk” with someone else, they are distracted by their smart phones and are less likely to “listen in” the conversation. Equally important “dual front interaction” or gestures between friends might decrease. For example, if the person that is “cross talking” with a friend notes that his friend is distracted with a cell phone while he is talking, he wont even try to make a gesture and will keep talking. A “three way interaction” still happens today, but even higher. The better quality sound of iphones and the speaker function allows people to have a better three way conversations than five years ago.

Humphreys says that the concept of “caller hegemony” described by Robert Hopper in 1992 said that the caller has power over the answerer. This is because the caller always knows the identity of the answerer, but the answerer doesn’t know the identity of the caller. Humphreys says that Hopper’s concept became a less authoritarian interaction between the caller and the answerer because of the caller ID feature that comes with cell phones. The answerer can tell who is calling.

Today I think that a new concept of “caller hegemony” can be applied not only to cell phones, but also to landline phones. I would change the concept of “caller hegemony” to “dual hegemony” because today in the US every person knows who is calling them by caller ID. The caller and the answerer have the same option to decide if they will answer the phone or not to make a call. Today home phones and cell phones have caller ID. People know who is calling to their home or to their cell phone. However, the location and time can always prevent the person answering the phone.

Humphreys’ study does not mention text-messaging. Today, students in high schools or universities use text-messaging more than calling. They need to do another study to see how text-messaging affects the “single” and “withs” personality. In addition, the study did not mention how cell phone use affects interpersonal relationships. Will be interesting to see how emotional, family and professional relationships are affected by my concept of ‘dual hegemony’ or Gopper’s concept of “caller hegemony.”

I saw that the concept of “caller hegemony” still applies to some emotional relationships. For example, some people feel that they always have to answer their phones when their partner is calling. In this case the caller reinforces the authority over the answerer by influencing the emotional and psychological feelings. I am not saying that using emotions to making the person answer the phone is bad, but it definitely changes the answerer behavior. For example, I saw people to leave the whole reunion, classroom or party to answer phone calls from their partners. Studies of emotional relationships (good and bad) involving calling, and text-messaging will be interesting to analyze.

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