I wake up on an average day of classes and realize for the umpteenth time that I have overslept for my first class. I jump out of bed, pull on the same pants I wore yesterday, grab my backpack and run to class. I reach into my pocket for my cell phone to check the time on the way only to realize that it’s still in my apartment. Immediately I stop and look back at the path behind me and realize I have gone too far to go back for it now. In the back of my mind I realize that until I get it I will feel naked, what if someone’s trying to contact me, what if I need to contact someone else, what if I need to know the time and there’re no clocks around? Does this sound familiar to you?
I’m one of the estimated 256.4 million Americans that use a cell phone on a daily basis and at this point I simply can’t function without it. I have no doubt that the cell phone will eventually be the ultimate convergence device. In my opinion it has already laid the groundwork necessary for being the only source of media you ever need. I use a Voyager by LG, this is considered to be a “Smartphone” meaning it has basic internet capabilities and uses a 3G network. I hypothesize that in the foreseeable future cellular technology can only go one direction and that is up, creating smaller, faster and more powerful phones. The reason is that it’s something that we already carry in our pockets and only have to buy a better version.
Technophiles aside, people tend to be reluctant to adopt a completely new technology because of various reasons, price often being the most prominent. Cellular technology however, is different in that you don’t need to buy an entirely new technology, only get a better version of the product you already use every day. This means that a new feature added to already existing cell phone technology is adopted at a much faster rate.
There are however, some detriments to such fast adoption. One of the major problems with such dependence on cellular technology is that people have a tendency to use cell phones while driving and pay less attention to the road, creating a much more dangerous environment for other drivers on the roads. Laws have been passed in some states (
I would argue that some day cell phones will be the basis for the ultimate and final convergence device, which will likely be nothing like our conventional ideas of cell phones because of the pace at which the technology is developing. The problem is that people are abusing the technology and in some cases endangering themselves and those around them.
Cross, Ginger Wigington (2008). The impact of an auditory task on visual processing: Implications for cellular phone usage while driving. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering. Vol 69(2-B).
