 The
Power of Mobile (A Short Fable For Today)
by Michael Hulme
Michael
Hulme is the Chairman of Teleconomy Group Plc.
He has written and lectured extensively on issues
relating to consumer behaviours and corporate
communication, and has had a successful commercial
career in senior management and as an entrepreneur. |
‘Snappy messages can ruin your marriage…’
ran the headline in the last edition of the Sunday
Times. The article goes on to recount the story of
a married man caught in a somewhat compromising situation
by a friend of his wife. This ‘helpful’
friend, using her MMS mobile phone, takes a photograph
of the cavorting couple and promptly dispatches it
to his wife! I leave you to guess the nature of subsequent
conversations between husband and wife.
At one level this an amusing, even one might say slightly
moral story. However it also makes explicit the ‘power’
characteristics of mobile devices and how we use them
to control events, time and others. And even this
is not the full story, for whilst we attempt to control
others they in turn may attempt to control us. Welcome
to the real world of ‘Big Brother’ where
‘Big Brother’ may indeed be your own brother
or sister!
You may feel this is all a little exaggerated, but
consider the following. We now attempt to control
others because of the personal and time censorship
we can achieve with our mobile devices. For example,
many calls/texts to mobile devices are simply ignored,
in some cases never to be returned to, as users decide
whom they want to have contact with. Recent research
also clearly demonstrated that mobile phone users
felt less commitment to keeping appointments or time
related meetings, confident that by calling on the
mobile, times could be renegotiated.
Such behaviours, whilst simple in themselves, are
part of the ‘power’ dynamic that is an
integral part of our relationships, a dynamic reinforced
and provided with new opportunities through mobile
devices.
Again, what we are doing to others, others are doing
to us. One of the most commonly used questions for
mobile users is ‘where are you?’ Recent
research unearthed many quotations from individuals
along the lines of “it’s the only way
I have any idea where he/she is or what they’re
up to”. In the past, merely saying where we
were was not exactly tantamount to empirical proof.
Now, we may have to start providing photographic evidence!
Return to our ‘discovered’ husband, or
more interestingly, the position of the wife’s
friend. She has literally been empowered) by her mobile
device: she has made several choices, she could have
informed the husband of her ‘record’ and
intentions, she could have ignored the situation etc.
Certainly her relationship with both the husband and
wife has been changed, probably irrevocably, by the
use of the device. In turn she has transferred the
power of secrecy from the husband to the wife; his
‘secret’ assignation becomes his wife’s
secret information with which to confront him. Some
time in the early hours of the morning, the husband
may be about to witness the results of a very significant
shift in the ‘balance of power’.
Importantly it is the new combination of ease of use,
mobility, immediacy and visual data that makes this
story so telling. This is a simple tail with an ending
we may only guess at. However, it should make us stop
and think how we use our mobile devices and how others
via them may attempt to use, control and watch and
even, heaven forbid, record us.
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