Balance and Adaptation

 This article targets the youth of today, those primarily between the ages of 16 – 25. I want to tell you the importance of keeping a balance. Not a balance financial life or a balanced spiritual life, a balanced virtual Life. So many of us (I fall into the age bracket as well) are forgetting the importance of face-to-face communication. We are forgetting how relationships are built, how trust is instilled. Instead we are building up our virtually identities. Everybody knows what John is like on Twitter and Facebook, but do you really know what John is like in person? Sperrier686 mentions that “with people so focused on their cell phones that they almost forget the real world around them”.

Could there be some truth in the Leung and Wei (2000) argument that the major motives for mobile phone use are for fashion status? We would hope not, what happened to functionality. I believe at some point functionality was an important aspect of mobile phones, but the world has come far from that (some parts of the world). There are still some areas where the basic functionality of the mobile phone is the main purpose. Many of us are victims of the trade off factor  (Campbell & Jin Park 2008). We know that option A can do everything we need it to do, but option B looks slick and can almost do everything we need.

To an extent it is almost uncontrollable to not be part of the virtual world. When changes in the real world are being made to accommodate those of the virtual world compromises have to be made by the resisters. For example businesses that force customers to make appointments via a social networking tool, or a course that makes top hat monocle mandatory for the students. Top Hat Monocle is a participation system where students/users must text in or log on to answer a question correctly. Benedict mentions how she almost feels alone when she does not see that red light blinking. How many of you blackberry users feel the same way? I can assure you she is not alone on the issue. Participation in the virtual world is almost uncontrollable. Balance is key.

“I hate that I need”, says susiemedia  as she talks about her relationship with her smartphone. This is the attitude that those of us that understand the problem at hand take. They dislike the idea of being to reliant on their smartphone, but understand that it is in a sense necessary. Access is the problem at hand and in some way the revolution. A simple citizen has access to so much from the little smartphone device they pocket. I have to ability to translate a language I have never learned instantaneously; I can tell you what time it is on the other side of the world instantaneously (close to an instant depending on what mobile network you are on and how Siri might be feeling today). We the people have power than ever before.

Goggin talks about this power that I speak of, “the appearance of multimedia mobile phones-especially so-called "smartphones", kin to other ubiquitous "smart" technology (Kuniavsky 2010)--had increased the space, power flexibility on such devices software development" (Goggin 2011).

Now can we overthrow the problems that have come with this social system that has been created through the world of mobile devices? Can we save our youth from the pressures of the digital locus as Fabio Josegrilberg calls it? I believe the answer to that is no, to me its not about saving anyone, its about balance as well as adaptation. It is now up to individuals to realize the importance human to human intimacy. As I mentioned in a previous post, as human beings no matter where we go and what we create, whether a newly discovered planet, virtual world, a mobile device, along comes all the social issues we face in the present world.

Campbell, S. W. and Park, Y. J. (2008), Social Implications of Mobile Telephony: The Rise of Personal Communication Society. Sociology Compass, 2: 371–387

Goggin, G. (2011). Ubiquitous apps: politics of openness in global mobile cultures. Digital Creativity, 22(3), 148-159.

Josgrilberg, Fabio B. (2008). A Door to the Digital Locus: Walking in the City with a Mobile Phone and Michel de Certeau. Wi: Journal of Mobile Media. Spring 2008 (10).