The invention of mobile phones has permanently altered society. The idea that you can be contacted at any time day or night has provided a dramatic increase in communication. Mobiles have become a part of daily life, and many people feel lost without them. Although they were initially created for voice conversations, updated versions provided the ability to send word messages (SMS). However, with the development of iPhones these capabilities are old school. As well as calling and texting, these phones have 24hour access to the internet, including shortcut applications to social media sites. Additionally, they are a GPS, camera, ipod, alarm, calender, address book, diary, information storage device and portable game player. And there’s more! You can sync your iPhone with your Mac book and your iPad which allows you to update information on one device and it will immediately save the changes to all your other devices. The list goes on and on. Our entire lives can be controlled by a pocket size machine. So what are the implications for society or even our personal identities by having these mobile devices?
According to Ingrid Richardson (2007) mobile media has become a part of our bodily make up. Just as a car may be seen to be a part of our body because of our ability to use it to achieve goals, so too do mobile phones act as a tool to provide further function to our being. However, we are not always driving a car but we seem to have a strong bond with our mobile which makes it inseparable from us, just like an extra limb.
Mobiles provide us with a connection to the rest of our world, all our friends, family, work and information is accessible in seconds. If this connection were severed, how would you feel? So many people cannot even imagine life without their phones and there is now a term for this fear. Nomophobia is the fear of not having mobile phone contact. Someone suffering from nomophobia presents similar symptoms to anxiety/ panic attacks and depression. Jennifer Ledbetter writes an article which outlines common causes of this phobia which include:
Ø Low battery charge with no way to charge your cell phone
Ø A "No Cell Phones" sign
Ø No signal strength on mobile device
Ø A broken or malfunctioning cell phone
Ø Lost cell phone
Ø Just the THOUGHT of potentially losing mobile device
Ø Stolen cell phone or fear of it being stolen
Ø Any situation that causes you to not be able to use your mobile device.
Have you ever been faced with these situations? How did you feel? Are you a nomophobic?
Donna Haraway has also provided theories to help explain our connection with technology. Although written 25years ago, Donna Haraway’s theory of the cyborg is evident in this mobile society. Similar to Ingrid’s explanation, Haraway predicted that technology would become ingrained in who we are. Society has gone from individuals thinking they were isolated in the world, to thinking of themselves as nodes in a global network. It is interesting how everyone feels this need to be interconnected, yet when you walk through the streets people are not interacting with those around them but are all talking to someone else on their phones. Yes, we are communicating but are we really connecting? Are we able to fulfil our basic social needs through a machine? Although mobile phones have indeed transformed the way society functions and will continue to be a part of it for the foreseeable future, we must prepare for the times when our mobile devices don't work. I would even suggest turning them off occasionally so you can take some time to form deep connections with those around you. If mobile phones are just like a limb, at some point they need to rest too. 
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