Introduction
In today’s lifestyle, mobile phones have become one of the most integral parts of our lives. The mobile handset is now considered a consumer artefact. These devices are although serving the individuals that own them, but they can be social artefacts in of themselves. The main purpose of the article is to discuss how mobile phones carry a deep sociological impact, and effects the way how individuals and society interact with one another. It also explains how the mobile now is not just a digital hub but a bridge that connects us to the world around us. How it not only affects the digital operations we perform on it but transforms the way we do business.
Characteristics of Mobile Culture and Practices
The evolution of communication technology from fixed landlines to the mobile phone has facilitated quick and easy communication to a fascinating extent. In the 1990’s, as GSM networks were introduced alongside an increasing number of service providers, subscription began to increase to a dramatic level, until today when mobile phones have become a necessary part of not just communication but entertainment, media, and information. So these developments have already culturally surrounded us to a significant level (Katz, 2008). Text messaging has become a metaphor or a symbol of free culture today. It is celebrated today at an unprecedented level for its ability for not only for collectivities but even shape polities and national identities. Additionally, mobile sound technologies have had a widespread use that defines how users start to inhabit the space around them in which they move about.
This technology use seems to bind the disparate threads together for an urban movement, which fills the spaces between meetings and communications, thereby structuring the spaces thus occupied (Bull, 2005). For interpersonal communication, the mobile phone has become a dire necessity primarily because of three characteristics: control and immediate accessibility, constant contact availability and direct interaction between individuals. Some features that have led to affecting mobile phone usage is the increasing individualism associated with it, as well as an uncertainty reduction. Another characteristic that has become a common aspect of mobile culture is an increasing self-opinion value which in turn leads to a greater increase in mobile phone usage (Choi, 2009).
Mobile Culture and Societal Structures
In Internet Communication’s Technology ICT, mobile telephony has started to become increasingly associated with and analysed from a socio-cultural framework, apart from other perspectives. One of the reasons is because it is flexible enough to allow people to fit it in their lives while impacting one’s social life’s space settings. At times, people’s practices on and with their mobile phones are set by cultural constraints, but which are wide cross-cultural variations. This leads to the domestication of the culture (Dwivedi, 2011). In a human social network, the significance of an individual is conferred on account of him existing as a human being, whereas in the digital network systems, a node does not get awarded a meaning unless that note is active and alive in the network it is part of (Choi, 2007). Therefore the mobile media network lets the user become an active node of the networked society automatically.
Individuality and self-identity are two distinctive features of adolescence, which also affect the young individual’s decision to become an active node on the network (Chatterjee, 2014). As communications become more invisible and wireless, as well as easier to afford, the location and distance factors in communication have started to become irrelevant increasingly. It is possible that we will be moving beyond the point shortly where we will all have to think regarding our existence in the mobile society (W. Cellary, 2002). That is because the ease of communication has led to a decrease in relevance of a one-to-one physical human interaction and face to face meetings (Scudder, 2008).
How Smartphone Functions and Design Enable Mobility
Modern smartphone applications and design have once again revolutionised digital communications and mobility, starting with the advent of the iPhone. For instance, the increasing affordability of mobile handsets, value-added mobile-friendly digital content, and cloud platforms have restructured how libraries access systems work and what now seems to be the old pen, and paper methods have been replaced with mobile access platforms, fundamentally changing the way we access specialised knowledge. Inbuilt 4G and GPS satellite technology that now comes as a standard in modern smartphones has increased access to infotainment or edutainment, as well as promoting health or reading habits within rural communities. What is in most demand today is real-time information. Devices such as iPhone or iPod touch have brought entertainment and learning into the palm of our hands (Ghosh, 2015).
Another example is how cell-phone novels in Japan have hybridised various modalities that includes writing, speech or imaging, or involved the uses of gestures, emoticons with it (Katz, 2008). Four types of applications, in particular, have had a notable impact in transportations. These include courier network services, mobility apps, smart parking apps and vehicle connectivity apps. They assist users with booking, routing or payments for multimodal or single trips. Shared mobility through peer to peer or business to consumer sharing apps along with real-time information apps, public transit apps, taxi e-Hail apps and multimodal aggregators are changing the face of mobility and transport (Shaheen, 2016). This not only impacts the way we communicate and how we travel but affects how businesses are transforming from traditional ways towards models that generate revenue by connecting clients and service providers using digital platforms.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is quite understandable to see that wireless networking technology has led to communications growing to an unprecedented level in human history. Mobile phones have not only become fashionable gadgets to possess but an expression of individual identity and tools for life. Society and mobile communications have become increasingly intertwined in a connected world, where multimodal communications to anywhere from anywhere affect our everyday life, at school or work at any possible time. It raises broader concerns about culture and politics, both local and global. It has infiltrated into our lives to such a deep extent that is now being referred to as a third limb. It has come to such an extent that people when faced with the possibility of being away or without their precious mobile gadgets, have started to experience withdrawal symptoms, even for a short while.
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