iPhones and Survillence

Have you seen the new option that is accessible through iPhone? The one where u can track your friends or that special someone if they have the same phone. I can see the appeal in some circumstances but overall i find the whole thing fairly disturbing. Being able to track people in real time when they aren't aware of it, almost sounds like some sort of CIA consiracy.

Cell Phone Ads

My next issue i wish to discuss regarding cell phones is the marketing campaigns that support them. We are fast approaching Christmas so there is no doubt we will soon be bombarded by ads for cell phones and services. It would be interesting to be in charge of marketing these devices since it appears they all offer the same thing for essentially the same price. Recently there was an iPhone ad that was banned in the UK for false advertisement. Apparently the commercial was displaying the Google maps function much faster than it actually is. I began reflecting on my last cell phone purchase and how i may have been tricked into the purchase because of a feature. I realized that a reason i bought the phone was because of the MP3 player but soon realized that when using it the battery dies within 30mins. Very frustrating and all the sales person did was shrug their shoulders.

Cell Phone: Communication tool or a Fashion Statement

Have a look at your cell phone, is it new and shiny or beat up and ready for disposal. I watched a commercial this week (most likely for Rogers) in which they compared cell phones to being in love. Stating that when you first buy it it becomes your shiny new love that you brag about to your friends and flaunt in public but as time goes by that love fads into embarrassment and a need for change. The sad thing is that feeling is a reality for many. Cell phones as a communication tool takes a back seat to style, it becomes an identifier of status. The cell phone market demands turn over of product and constant upgrading to keep up with the times so that you are not left behind. Very little changes in the actual quality or use of the device but rather the look of it, just like, lets say, pants over the last 100 years. It is not just ads on TV that portray this desire to be ahead of fashion but it has been socially constructed into our way of purchasing. A few weeks ago I overheard a conversation on the bus between to young girls in which one was making fun of the other because of her new flip phone. "flips are so out, its all about the sliders now" she says. As the one girl accepts her mistake, I diverted my attention elsewhere and slip my flip phone discreetly into my pocket. Overall I think what ones particular use of the device will depict which phone to buy but just like clothing, cell phones in some sense make a statement about yourself. You have the ability to individualize your phone such as face plates, ringtones, wall paper but are limited in what the market defines as new and cutting edge. Whether we like it or not, that top of the line phone you get free for signing up for a 3 year contract will label you out of touch with technology within 6 months...

Watch What You Say

After spending the last week talking about packet switching, networks, routers ext, I've begun to wonder about how much of our personal information is just floating around. It's kind of weird to think that every e-mail, Facebook pic, banking transaction has been broken down and disseminated into a decentralized network only to be relocated in one place. How much of that do you think is replicated or possibly sent to several destinations? We have put alot of trust in these technologies and we assume that only sender/reciever will have access. The same assumtion should be applied to cell phones. How private are they really? We know from Hollywood movies that criminals and terrorists can be tracked but what about the average network user? With the excessive use of cell phones today we have become obsorbed by an invisible dome of service and survailence. I have a hunch that the iPhones GPS capabilities work both ways, maybe all cell phones have GPS chips and if that was the case anyone of us could be tracked by whoever had access to the technology. Don't worry I'm not suffering from paranoia ( I think), it's just an issue that I have been pondering. I know that accidentally clicking "reply to all" when you don't mean to is bad enough, but having all of your personal info bouncing around a global network on a daily basis is kind of worrysome.

The Inevitable Convergence

Over the years cell phones and the internet have followed similar paths. First designed for institutional use such as the military or government both technologies have trickled down through the ranks of society to be common place in everyday life. This being said it is no surprise that they have eventually ended up converging into nearly identical forms of communication devices. Today cell phones are merely mobile PCs offering all the same functions as well as being owned by the same Internet provider. With the release of iPhone this all became a reality. For the first time a device can harness the power of the Internet, contain GPS technology, store music, videos or simply have streaming content oh and the ability to make or receive calls. Cell phone providers have begun to move away from the actual phone functions of towards essentially wireless Internet. So what implications do you see coming from all of this? I would find it borderline invasive and annoying being alerted everytime someone becomes listed as single on Facebook. There is also issues of complexity, I've seen someone struggle to make a phone call with the iPhone becuase of all the other options available. Than there is ownership and control. Rogers has complete distribution and control rights of iPhone in Canada which I find frustrating becasue of past circumstances. I am no longer allowed to be a customer of Rogers therefor I can not buy an iPhone, I wouldn't anyway but I would still like the option...(for anyone who has actually made it this far in reading my blog you may have noticed spelling errors in my post. For this i apologize but my spell check is on the fritz and without the red skwiggle under the words I'm helpless. )

Have Cell Phones Restructured Our Lives?

I think the common answer to that question would be yes, of course it has. Nowadays we are essentially connected on a global scale to everyone. Work and leisure have become blurred, friendships are reduced to illegible text messages, and info is disseminate so quickly through these the devices ( ie. facebook on your cellphone) that it is hard to imagine a world with out them. It's almost as if we are constrained by this technology, no freedom to roam as an individual. But is that the case? Is our sense of reality that much different than before they came on to the market? The cell phone is merely a more advanced replication of a land line phone and before that morse code and so on. People still recieved calls from overseas marketers, their boss or a drunk friend from a pay phone back before there was cell phones. In no way have cell phones reduced our freedom as some may argue, in fact they have given us more, you can't turn off a land line the same way you can turn off your cell phone.

My name is Tyler and I have always had something negative to say about blogs, blogging, and bloggers but now I have been struck down by sweet irony. I am a second year communications student at Capilano U and am looking forward to another productive year here. I was born and raised in Victoria but made the great journey accross the drink to be here today. So lets get started.I've decided to base my blog around the obviously popular hand held gadget known as the cellular phone. I feel that it has become so irrigated into everyday must have life like a wallet or house keys that it is worth exploring its function within society. I assume that almost everyone in this class, college/university (whatever it is), city and probably country either owns a cell phone or at least knows what they are and rely heavily on them. I plan to touch on issues such as ownership and marketing of the device to simple phone etiquette and ever changing styles and functions. This will hopefully allow me to explain the technological phenomenon that started with Zack Morris's shoe box of a phone in the early 90's to today's models offering a plethora of functions such as GPS, interent, and data storage and even the nearly obsolete art of talking to one another with words and possibly emotion...