Reference

Has mobile media and communication altered our personal habits and behaviours? Yes. Yes it has. I think it is inevitable that with the introduction and adoption of new technologies, we will see a change in our everyday behaviours and habits. Some people believe that it is all doom-and-gloom in terms of what these changes mean for society as a whole. These people believe that mobile technologies have created a society of individuals who don’t really associate with each other in any way (Wilken 2014, p. 177). In Wilken’s chapter in the book The Mobile Story: Narrative Practices with Locative Technologies he also identifies another view, that individuals may believe that they are isolated and invisible, but rather are closer than they think (Wilken 2014, p. 177). Wilken quotes Simmel when he notes “…the experience of urban life and of others is that, ‘while we think strangers are disconnected from us,’ in fact our experience of ‘strangeness means that he who also is far is actually near’ (2014, p. 177). Basically, even though we aren’t necessarily communicating conventionally, being in close proximity to other individuals, we are, in some way, communicating with each other. We are learning each other’s behaviours. We are learning how we react in those given situations. We also learn how badly we want to be alone or invisible. Take a Metro train for instance. How often have you consumed yourself in something to make yourself believe that you aren’t really there? How often have you tuned out the rest of the train commuters by using your mobile phone or laptop? All the time speaking for myself. We like to believe that we are ‘invisible’ and don’t have to communicate with others because we are on a train. We don’t know anyone, and probably don’t want to. The train is conceived as a mode of transport from work to home and back again, not as a form of communication or meeting new friends.

However, technologies have brought us closer together, but not necessarily physically. Take Tinder for example. It uses locative technologies to find people you might like to interact with in your area. Yes you are still communicating with others. Yes you are still meeting new people, but there is no physical contact with the other person. You could be sitting at home in your pyjamas talking to this person. It is effortless.

That is what I believe communicative ecologies have allowed for today. I believe that these communicative ecologies have allowed communication with others to become effortless. We don’t really have to take time out of our busy day to go and meet people, we can sit on the train and meet people or communicate. Whether that is good or bad is not certain.

Wilken, R. (2014). Proximity and Alienation: Narratives of City, Self, and Other in the Locative Games of Blast Theory. In: J. Farman, ed., The Mobile Story: Narrative Practices with Locative Technologies. New York: Routledge, pp.175–191.

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