Mobile Phones Are Changing Our Behavior
As I’ve written before, mobile programming is becoming a more and more significant part of our lives. According to research compiled even years ago, the cell phone is changing the way we live. In fact, some are questioning how we ever got along without them. This is the age of “anywhere, anytime communication.” The cell phone first hit the
marketplace in 1984. Now, two decades later, more than half of all Americans use cell phones—about 150 million people who feed a $94 billion industry that is growing by 15 percent each year. (That’s from a 2004 study).
The fastest growing segment of the population that is going wireless is kids between 12 and 17 years of age. It is estimated that 29 million are now cell phone users. And researchers are now telling us that the cell phone is impacting our social behavior—so much so that it could have a lasting effect on society as a whole.
“At least four ethnographic studies in the U.S. and Europe released in 2001 and 2002 have detected signs of changing habits due to wireless communication. Thanks to mobile phones, the researchers found, Americans and Europeans may be becoming more independent and spontaneous. But they may also be growing prone to planning at the last minute and arriving at meetings late. They’re sharing more of their personal lives in public but are also forcing a redefinition of basic etiquette. This increasing accessibility is allowing work to impinge even more on family lives even as it enhances social lives.”?
What other types of behavior changes have you seen since the advent of mobile phones?
Source: “America Untethered,” American Demographics
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booknut67
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http://christianjava.wordpress.com Roland Thomas Gilbert
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Jeff Reid
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http://www.collinsinformation.com Woody Collins
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