Page 291 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

0 | Mob le Med a

earlier had been dispersed over discrete, nonintegrating media such as televi-
sion, radio, and the Internet.

moBiLE usEs anD ConCErns
As a device for receipt of content formerly available only via mass media,
the new all-purpose mobile communication device stirred little controversy
until the corporate giant Verizon attempted to restrict text messages from a pro-
choice group to consumers who had signed up to receive them. Immediate and
overwhelmingly negative responses to the announcement caused Verizon to re-
scind the policy (Liptak 2007). The specter of corporate censorship was then
added to other controversial issues raised by the use of cell phones. As a device
for conversation—as in talking on the phone in public or driving one’s car while
talking on the phone—the cell phone has been the object of a variety of social
concerns.
These concerns include the appropriateness of talking on the cell phone in
certain public places, ranging from restaurants to movie theaters to funeral
homes. Such battles over proper social cell phone etiquette have resulted in their
being banned in certain places in the United States—such as the “quiet” cars on
Amtrak trains. Talking and driving presents the use of two powerful technolo-
gies, a combination that many believe pushes human multitasking abilities to
the edge. Highway safety agencies tie cell phone use to car accidents and numer-
ous states levy hefty fines on those who find it hard to separate driving from
talking on their cell phones. Another set of concerns pertains to the “right” of
people not to answer their cell phones when called—to be offline or unavailable,
without insulting the caller.
Cell phones have also been at the center of debates over surveillance and pri-
vacy. Many parents in particular have enjoyed the access to their children that
phones give them, allowing them to “check up” on children at all hours. The de-
vices also convince many parents that their children are safer, since they are able
to call home or emergency services in a matter of seconds. But teens may be less
enthusiastic about their parents’ abilities to keep a cellular leash on them. Sur-
veillance issues are also writ large with the advent of better mobile tracking that
allows authorities to locate a cell user: when our every call can be recorded and
geolocated, many worry about the potential for abuse of such information, espe-
cially when phones are being used by political dissidents. Some in the medical
profession, such Dr. George Carlo have attempted to raise issues of harmful med-
ical side effects of cell phone use. Such concerns are usually not taken seriously,
and debates over health issues remain underreported by the mainstream media.
Whatever the resolution of such social issues, mobile media continue to in-
crease in popularity, and indeed have become extensions of the self for many
people. What the device looks like when in use, when held close to one’s ear,
has become as significant a criterion in the decision to purchase as what the
device can do and how it can perform. Meanwhile, the photos, songs, and icons
one chooses to carry in one’s phone are used to announce and perform various
individual and group identities.