THE MODERN CELL PHONE: COMMUNICATING CULTURE, NOT CONVERSATION. By Natalie Rehm

Transcription

1 Natalie Rehm 1 THE MODERN CELL PHONE: COMMUNICATING CULTURE, NOT CONVERSATION By Natalie Rehm Communications 428 For: Roman Onufrijcuk

2 Natalie Rehm 2 THE MODERN CELL PHONE: COMMUNICATING CULTURE, NOT CONVERSATION In our modern, fast paced society cell phones have become essential tools for everyone from elementary school children, and teenagers to businessmen and senior citizens. There are 780 million cell phone users world wide in Europe, wealthier parts of Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Australia, Canada, and the United States, India, and Asia (Wikipedia, 2006). Nowadays, it is an absolute rarity for someone not to own a cell, as they have become a stable in our everyday lives. They are crucial for work, leisure, pleasure, maintaining social and familial relations, and keeping up with modern times. They have become not just our lifeline to the outside world, but our alarm clocks, our phone books, Mp3 players, calculators, internet connections, and much more. The invention of the modern mobile phone has profoundly altered the way we communicate with friends and family, how we work, live, act, play, and develop and maintain social relationship. We have come to understand the impact of new technologies on our everyday lives, as medium theorists have for decades discussed and critiqued the impacts of new multimedia technologies on our society. We can agree with medium theorists like Mcluhan that cell phones are an extension of mans senses, with Innis s belief that technology is both time and spaced-biased, and we are aware of others praises and uncertainties regarding mediums like the cell phone. We understand their utility and how their existence has played a major role in altering our socio-cultural relations. Cell phones have come to play an essential role in our modern society as a device that has not only changed the face of our society but that also acts as an aesthetic artefact whose design conveys, communicates and reinforces our culture, community, society, and even our

3 Natalie Rehm 3 individuality. For far too many years communications researchers have focus singularly on the utility of objects and how their existence has forever altered our culture and society. However, as important as the utility of objects remains the form of objects plays an ever important, yet widely underestimated role in our lives. Utility aside; form is what we are interested in. Explicitly a cell phone is a tool we use to communicate with, like a car is a tool that transports us, a martini glass an item we drink with and a plate an object that holds our food. If these cultural artifacts were dug up by archaeologists 500 years from now, they would initially seem like meaningless objects. A cell phone becomes a small, detailed piece of plastic, a car a couch with accessories, a martini glass as a piece of art or a fish bowl, and a plate possibly an ineffective Frisbee. Their shape, design, and form would allow archeologists, just as they allow us, to formulate justifications about the artefacts utility and the culture and society in which they emerged. One would hypothesize about the objects system function, or possible uses based on its design in order to discover the items proper function, or actual use (Graves-Brown, 2000, pp30). The form of a cell phone becomes nearly as important as its function to facilitate communication, as its design communicates its utility. Its shape essentially has to maintain a certain configuration in order to enable its proper function. Just as cars need tires, cell phones cannot be shaped like bricks and weight 3 pound, like the ancient Motorola 3200 Brick series. This structure would hinder the mobile phones ultimate function; mobile communication. Although, it could function as a make-shift weapon in a woman purse, the above structure has a

4 Natalie Rehm 4 mechanical feel, an almost machine-like aesthetic, which makes it very difficult to decipher its utility. In contrast, the design of the modern cell phone suggests to those unfamiliar with it what its proper function is. Its shape, contours, size, weight, the placement of the microphone, and ear piece, all suggest that it is a portable electrical device, used to communicate with. Schiffer (Graves-Brown 2000, 29) would suggest that the design of the modern cell phone facilitate ours and others understanding of the cell phones technofunction. The technofunction is the utilitarian function of the thing. In turn, design is an important element that enables our society and those unfamiliar with our society to understand the utility of our tools. Furthermore, the designs of cultural artifacts, like the cell phone, also have the ability to communicate culture. The common cell phone in Canada, its shape, design, character and appeal expresses implicitly through design information about our culture. For instance, the most popular phone currently on the market in North America is the Motorola V3 Razor phone. It is one of the lightest, thinnest phones in the North American market, and like the majority it is available in various colors, with a plethora of custom option ring tones, wallpapers, face plates, image clips and accessories. One may question what a popular cell phone has to do with culture; the answer is everything. Our tastes have evolved, our culture has evolved and become more technologically advanced and this is reflected in our taste for design. Change is reflected through design and this is why the most popular cell phone in Canada is no longer the old Motorola Brick, nor the once popular Nokia 3310, or Motorola Startac. Again, if 500

5 Natalie Rehm 5 year from now an archaeologist discovered that the Motorola V3 was Canada most popular phone in 2006, they could make certain educated assumption about our society. By knowing that we could very well use older phones but preferred newer, shiner, up-todate phones one could hypothesize that we value design, technology, and streamlined objects. They might also suggest that our country was fairly well off as the majority of people have mobile phones, that we were a very busy mobile society, and that we were technologically advanced because cell phones were commonplace in Bases on the thousands of cell phones, accessories, brands and custom options we have for cell phones they might also hypothesize that we preferred to have a variety of consumer choices, value the material images and object, and were a more individualistic culture. In contrast, if it was found that very few of us owned mobile phones and those who did all owned the black old Motorola Brick series, one could make very different assumptions about our culture. Design would tell archeologists that we were a less advanced country, who did not value or could not afford design options. Perhaps we did not care or did not need mobile communications, and that we are not driven by consumption and materiality. In sum, the design of a cell phone can communicate, suggest, and reveal certain cultural values, beliefs and ideals. Schiffer (Graves-Brown, 2000, pp. 29) would suggest here that the cell phones design has another function in addition to its technofunction; its ideofunction. The ideofunction of the cell phone is again communicated through its design and its function is to communicate more abstract ideas, values or beliefs about a culture. For instance, as the majority of people in our culture have cell phones and we value the different variety, design and newness of these objects, one is able to assume that we are a highly mobile culture that deeply values

6 Natalie Rehm 6 material goods. Minute details like the design of our cell phones are important to us because design allows us to convey important cultural ideas. We use design to make sense of the world, our beliefs, and other cultural principles. For example, by just looking at a cell phone that is common in Japan one is able to easily declare that the Japanese are more technologically advanced than us, revealing how design can communicate culture. As our culture prefers to own the most up-to-date phones, in a variety of brands, colors, shapes and sizes we are able to extract from this design information that our culture truly values material objects, images, technology, and diversity. If we did not values these thing we would all own the same old, black Motorola Brick phones. The fact that we care about the design and aesthetic of mobile phones reveals that image is important to us. It is the image, the design, the object that has meaning and its meaning becomes an essential part of our cultural communication. In addition to designs function in facilitating our understanding of the utility of objects and allowing us to communicate cultural ideals, design is important to us because we are a material culture. We value material goods and objects because they possess social, personal, and cultural meaning for us. Semioticians, like Barthes and Saussure, have stressed time and time again, human communication involves signs and it is material goods that are signs infused with cultural meaning (Barnard, 2002, pp. 81). Inanimate object are meaningful to us because they have become a currency which we use to communicate to others. This meaning is conveyed through the design of goods, not just the objects themselves. Aesthetic design becomes essential to our cultural lives because cultural objects, like cell phones, have what Schiffer calls sociofunctions, in

7 Natalie Rehm 7 which design has the ability to communicate social information to those in a society (Graves-Brown, 2000 pp.29). To understand how the design of cell phones can mediate social relations it is wise to look back to when the modern cell emerged. Historically, cell phones have evolved from the two-way car radios that were used in World War II, but it was not until 1977 that Bell Labs developed the first functioning unit (Bellis, 2006). In 1982, the very first phones were being slowly distributed across North America. But, they did not become popular until the early 1990 s. The first publicly used models, like the Motorola Brick, could only be obtained via mail and very few people owned them. Regardless, of its near comical appeal some of the first modern cell phones that appeared represented not only a new wave in communications technology but also a new object whose design communicated social status. They were few and far between and at first only owned by the very rich. The earliest mobile phones acted like status gatekeepers, as only a privileged wealthy few had the honor of owning one. Their very possession confirmed to all that the owner was in the upper crust of society. This was similar to an 18 th century principle of social distinction in which the very wealthy were able to verify their social standing through the possession of antique highly valued items, that were said to have patina (McCracken, 1990, pp.32). The actual cell phone, like an item with patina, was what was important, not its design appeal. However, as the times of patina are long gone so are the days when the mere ownership of a cell phone facilitated in verifying the owners social standing.

8 Natalie Rehm 8 The influence of patina met its demise after the 18 th century consumer boom in which a larger variety of goods became more accessible to a wider range a social classes. New items came to define social status, a larger variety of classes could afford to mimic the tastes of the rich and design and style came to play an essential role in social distinction. As we currently live in a fast paced consumer driven society where long since lost are the days when nobility, patina and birthright appoint, assign and verify social status. Our society does not have a concrete set of written rules which tell us where we belong, how we are defined and what our place, or role is in society. As a result of changes occurring in our society since the 18 th and 19 th century like mass production, new developments in marketing and advertising, we have turned into a culture driven by consumption and materiality, which explains why design plays such an important role within our culture. We us aesthetic objects as tools which enable us to communicate, convey, and verify our place in the world. The design of a cell phone becomes infused with meaning and it is its design and form that facilitate symbolic communication. More specifically, as cell phones were traditionally created as devices to communicate with, ironically they have morphed into something beyond their targeted purpose; a message, an expression, a symbol that mediates social relations. They have become an object whose design has the ability to implicitly communicate cultural and social norms, an extension of the users identity, a tool to verify and appoint social and economic status, personality, gender, and even age. The modern cell phone, like an article of clothing, becomes an accessory to the individual; a necessity which facilitates social communication.

9 Natalie Rehm 9 Similar to the demise of patina, the mere ownership of a cell phone lost value as a status gatekeeper, as its novelty diminished. Cell phones, like all consumer goods in our society, became mass produced, cheaper in price and quickly available to everyone for a minimal cost. McCracken (1990 pp.93) would suggest that at this point Simmel s trickledown theory had to come into play. Subordinate groups were beginning to purchase mobile phones in order to mimic the superordinate groups, and these upper classes were reacting by further purchasing newer items that were unobtainable to lower classes. This cat and mouse game continually enables material culture to flourish. As this had a democratizing influence, allowing all classes to purchase the status attributed to the ownership of a mobile phone, it resulted in the symbolic high status of the mobile phone to diminish. Design became more important as the ownership of a cell phone could no longer verify social standing. At this time in the late 1980 s and early 1990 s, a wide range of techno-product were penetrating the Western market from Japan, and the design of cell phones came to mirror the high-tech environment in which they were created (Spark 2004, pp.150). The high-tech aesthetic expressed a degree of technological utopianism represented by overtly masculine artifacts, colored black or silver to reflect their stereotypical gendering and their multiple and newly defined functionalities (Sparke, 2004, pp.150). Stereos, appliances, walkmans, and Discmans all mimicked the same sort of unitary design. It was also a time of postmodern design in which aesthetic became aligned with mass media and allied with marketing and branding (Sparke, 2004, pp. 129). This resulted in mobile phone designs that were not only marketed towards specific classes,

10 Natalie Rehm 10 genders and ages groups but towards specific lifestyle value and personality types (pp.138). It was not just mobile phones, but their design that became completely saturated with cultural meaning. This postmodern form of design had emerged in the 1970 s, replacing modernity and blurring the lines between popular and high culture. All the rules of modernist design were thrown out and replaced with the complex, ever changing nature of postmodern design where meaning is constantly being created, recreated and shape through design. Mobile phones in the mid to late 90 s began evolving away from the high-tech aesthetic and towards a more design oriented aesthetic. Sparke (2004, pp.170) suggests that this was a time when design had become fully integrated into society resulting in a design culture. Our society came to rely even more heavily on the design of our cultural artefacts than the objects themselves, as form has the ability to implicitly convey sociocultural ideals to material culture. There was an explosion of different cell phone brands from Motorola, to Audiovox, Ericsson to LG and Sony with an even greater selection of models (See for all models). The flip or clam shell phone emerged, phones became lighter, smaller and much more streamline, revealing not only our technological progress, but also a greater focus on design. Marketers began to focus more heavily on the brand image of cell phones and gave them not only a unique look, but also a distinctive image and personality. This more defined image and personality allowed for consumers to express themselves even more thoroughly through their mobile phones design. Sparke suggests (2004, pp.157) that it was a new opportunity for designers to create objects, services and systems that offered

11 Natalie Rehm 11 consumers new identities and new meanings which were linked to these identities and which depended more heavily upon the cultural rather than the technological. The design of cell phone has become like and item of clothing, an essential accessory which enables us to communicate to the rest of society our image, age, personality, economic status, and taste. In Stuart Ewen s (1999) book Culture and Consumption: The Politics of Style in Contemporary Culture, he discusses how style, fashion, and image have come to dominate every aspect of our lives. Although some may argue that are society has infused too much meaning into meaningless material objects, it is these object and their design that enable us to define ourselves, and others and make sense of our world and our place within it. As a result design has come to play an ever important role in our daily lives. Firstly, the modern mobile phone design can be used as a symbol that communicates and verifies the owner s economic status. By looking at the cell phone one owns we are able justify through its design the owners economic status. The filthy rich are able to afford the most up-to-date, cutting edge, grossly expensive models like those created by Austrian designer Richard Aliosson ( There base price is around $30,000+ and are gold plated and incrusted with diamonds. Based on the design of their mobile phone their wealth is impossible to deny. In contrast, broken phones and dirty or outdated models may also reveal the owners lower socio-economic status, or just that the owner does not care about the state of their mobile phone. People who own top-ofthe-line phones may be thought of as more economically stable than those still owning the old Motorola Brick phone. Every design function of a phone can act

12 Natalie Rehm 12 as a tell tale sign of the owner possible status, yet we must be careful not to be misled by these assumptions as the there are no set rules to postmodern design. The person using the top-of-the-line phone may have stolen it and the man with the Motorola Brick may be a millionaire with a passion for 80 s design. Moreover, the modern cell phones design also has the ability to communicate the owner s gender, personality, and identity. There are thousands of design options for cell phone users, enabling our society to communicate their individuality to others. There are tens of thousands of models of cell phones, hundreds of different brands, and millions of accessories, face plates, cases and ring tones which all enable the design of the mobile phone to reflect a truly unique image of an individual. Mobile phones have become fashion statements, which can clearly convey the owner s ideals, identity and personality. There are custom design options for cell phones that convey whether the owner is masculine, or feminine. There are stronger durable masculine models for men and lighter, more delicate models for women. Phones come in manly black and silver, or more feminine red and pink for women. Even face plates and customs cases can be purchases to add a more gendered touch to the mobile phone. In addition, the mobile phones owner s age can also be conveyed through the design of their cell phone. Usually, seniors will have older models as they are less concerned with keeping up with the times, while teenagers strive to afford the most upto-date, popular model within their budget. Preteens also prefer customizes design, but their choice in accessories are usually a telltale sign of their age. A child

13 Natalie Rehm 13 would easily be the owner of mobile phone illustrated here. The accessories in this illustration will also reveal how mobile phone design allows us to convey abstract ideas like age and gender to other members in our society. Even the owner s choice of ring tones and wallpaper will reveal to others their possible age. A heavy metal ring tone is easily assumed to not be for a senior citizen, while Mozart s Symphony is clearly not the choice of most preteens. Aside from communicating social status, gender and age, mobile phone design is able to project to others the owner s personality, tastes, likes and dislikes. Again the phones brand, model, and accessories are able to implicitly communicate the owner s likely or desired personality. For racy individuals there are cell phones covered in rhinestones, leopard print accessories, and cheesy faux fur cases. For old folks there are plain, black, nofrills phones which are user friendly, lacking accessories and are usually older more durable models. Businessmen and women usually chose more professional looking phones to suit the office, lacking accessories and/or excessive customization. There are even cell phone accessories for the rebel in society customized to covey their dangerous appeal. Mobile phones have become like postmodern fashion statements where anything goes and every means something. Furthermore, the design of a cell even has the ability to express the owner interest, hobbies, even beliefs. There are water resistant, highly durable phones designed for the outdoorsy or athletic types. There are cases that communicate to all the owners interest in a certain activity, sport, band, or brand. The design can sport flags revealing the owners country

14 Natalie Rehm 14 of origins and play ring tones that expose the owner s musical preference. Whatever the people s interests, personality, gender, or status there is a cell phone out their designed to match and communicate to all the desire image of the owner. As the design of a mobile phone can embody so many implicit social meanings it can also be used as a device that facilitates unity within social groups. People belonging to certain demographics will tend to own the same type of mobile phones just as they own the same types of cars, clothes, and homes. Wealthier individuals will have the more expensive Blackberry s while preteens will have the cheaper, accessorized mainstream phones. A person s phone might demonstrate to us that the owner shares similar interests, values, traits, or even socioeconomic status. The design becomes a symbolic device which can enable people to identify where they belong in relation to others is society. While material culture uses design to aid in the definition of self and others, its implicit meanings may lead to false generalization about individuals. We must keep in mind that the symbolic nature of postmodern design is never concrete and we can only make generalizations about our selves and others. There are no real truths or rules to verify that the design of cell phones can accurately characterize individuals in our society, however design plays an ever important role in allowing us to take sense of our culturally constituted world. Postmodern design is ever-changing and always in flux and it registers different meanings to different people and among different communities (Ewen 1999). Despite the complexity and confusion of the cell phone as a conveyor of cultural ideas, its diverse ever changing definition enables material culture to be connected to the reality of a given moment (Ewen 1999, pp23). As our world is perpetually changing; the design within it and the meanings that we create for designed

15 Natalie Rehm 15 goods are constantly in motion. This constant shifting of meaning acts within our culture as an instrument of continuity. Goods create an object-code that absorbs change and helps to configure it according to the existing terms sanctioned by culture (McCracken, 1990, pp.131) so the perpetual transformation of meaning that the cell phone design holds is essential. If we did not create a system of categorization, we would be unable to make sense of our surroundings. Although, design acts on so many levels to aid in communicating our cultural ideals, dreams and identities there is a darker side to this form of consumption. As we can be labeled as a material and consumer driven society we rely heavily on material goods to symbolically define our world. However, this reliance on meaningless material items displays our cultures superficial nature and decline of real, tangible belief systems beyond that of the material world. At the same time our dependence on design only perpetuates capitalist ideology by strengthening our beliefs that personality, dreams and ideals can be purchased through meaningless material goods. Despite this darker side of design it still remains essential in the construction, communication, and understanding of our culturally constituted world. In conclusion, in our consumer driven society in which images, brands, signs and symbols have become the main currency of meaning, form takes precedence over function. For far too long communication researcher have focused predominantly on the utility of new technologies and failed to examine how the design of devices like cell phones, cars, homes, everything from the clothes we wear, the art on our walls to the technologies we create are not only items we use, they are artifacts of our culture. The design of items like the mobile phone makes possible our understand of the utility of

16 Natalie Rehm 16 objects, it communicates cultural ideals and allows us to express our personality, age, gender, likes and dislikes through design. Design mirrors social, technological, and cultural change and has the ability to implicitly communicate abstract cultural concepts through the form of objects. Cell phones are not just devices used to communicate with, they are a cultural artefact that expresses beyond words a message, an expression, a symbol that mediates social relations. What type of phone do you have?

17 Natalie Rehm 17 References: Barnard, Malcolm. (2002). Semiological Accounts of Meaning. Fashion as Communication. UK: Routledge. ISBN: Bellis, Mary. (n.d) Selling the Cell Phone. About.com. Retrieved on April 28, 2006 from the World Wide Web: Ewen, Stuart. (1999). All Consuming Images: The Politics of Style in the Contemporary Culture. United Stated: Basic Books. ISBN Graves-Brown, P.M.. (2000). Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture. New York: Routledge. ISBN McCracken, Grant. (1990). Culture and Consumption. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, United States. Sparke, Penny. (2004). An Introduction to Design and Culture: 1900-Present. New York: Routledge. ISBN: Wikipedia. (May 3, 2006). Mobile Phones. Wikipedia database retrieved May 3, 2006 on the World Wide Web: