While we’ve all be eyeing the Internet as the transformative social technology of our generation, another less glamorous device has been quietly vying for the title. According to the International Telecommunications Union, almost half of the world’s population had a mobile phone in 2007, with the most significant growth in developing countries.
Mobile phones are certainly everywhere, in every demographic. And while the technology is increasingly mundane — make a call from anywhere, send a text message, ho hum — technology often has its greatest social impact when it becomes ubiquitous or ”normal.” Or, says Clay Shirky, ”We have reached an age when this stuff is technologically boring enough to be socially interesting.”
What does it mean for arts organizations that almost everyone in their audience has a mobile phone? Or that more and more are communicating by cryptic text messages (up to 2.3 trillion messages in 2010 according to Gartner)? As I’ve said before, something dramatic happens to a system when more than half of its parts are interconnected.
I’ve seen lots of conference and think-tank discussions about the Internet and how arts professionals can advance their work on-line. But we’ve had precious little discussion about the less exciting but perhaps more impactful role of the mobile phone — especially on the global stage. It might be time for some public thinking on the subject.
My hunch is that it’s only a matter of time before phone and internet merge. Phones are gradually becoming handheld devices for a variety of communication and media purposes (camera, audio recorder, text message, way to check the web, listen to music, watch a TV show).
Still, I’m sure that it will take longer for phones to become such multi-dimensional tools in developing nations.
I wonder how much time this convergence will take and if it isn’t worth talking about the unique opportunities that cellphones (that don’t have web access, etc.) can offer.
Here’s an interesting use of text messaging by a cultural org. in Chicago:
http://tinyurl.com/3pyubz
I have written a “Concerto for Mobile Devices” but so far, I have not found a venue. I can’t wait to say “Everyone please turn ON your cell phones, PDA’s and notebook computers and point to the URL of the webcast concert.” The piece is partly a play on latency, partly a social comment on big screens at concerts (and tiny live performers) and partly a fun idea. I can send you the proposal outline.
Check out my blog livemorelightly.com for my current project.