mobile-media summary?!
Table of Contents
1. Concepts of mobile media
1.1. technology and usages
1.2. media practices and transformations of media culture
2. global phenomenon
2.1. quick and broad level of adoption:
3. possible genealogies of mobile media (Levinson)
4. Knowledge and Memory
4.1. Memory and the construction of a (social) self
4.2. Philosophical and conceptual transformations of memory
5. Gaming and the 'quantified self'
5.1. Quantified Self
5.2. Gamification
1. Concepts of mobile media
1.1. technology and usages
technological artifacts (mobile phones, smart phones, tablets etc.)
technological infrastructure
contracts with service providers
1.2. media practices and transformations of media culture
media convergence / convergence culture (Jenkins)
Henry Jenkins called the smart phone the "Swiss Army knife" of technologies since, "in addition to being a communication device, it is becoming a camera, a photo album, […] an e-mail reader and a calender […] and can also function as a small-change purse, a bus ticket and a mini-notebook. That means, that there is a very broad range of possible usage, and this usage differs among individuals, it is related to access to different services and technologies and cultural differences."
"[…] the modern mobile phone is a central actor in "convergence culture" (Jenkins 2006), in which various media intermingle across multiple platforms, and are consumed, re-cut, republished and re-appropriated by active users in unpredictable ways." (Ling & Donner, p.13)
2. global phenomenon
"The first decade of the twenty-first century may be remembered as the historical moment when the majority of the world's population first secured easy and affordable access to telephones." (Ling, Rich, and Jonathan Donner. Mobile Communication. Digital Media and Society Series. Cambridge: Polity, 2009.)
2.1. quick and broad level of adoption:
2006: 10% of the world had access to internet, 32% to mobile phones. (Statistics by the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations) (see their website).
2014: 40% of the world had access to internet, 95% had access to mobile phones (estimated) [keep in mind, that it is difficult to interpret the subscription statistics: only about 69% of inhabitants in the african region are subscribers to mobile phone contractors, there is a e.g a practice of sharing a phone subscription among families, communities etc.)
3. possible genealogies of mobile media (Levinson)
Levinson, Paul. 2004. Cellphone: The story of the world’s most mobile medium and how it has transformed everything! New York, NY [u.a.]: Palgrave Macmillan.
Levinsons examples of a pre-history of mobile media include:
– the kodak photo camera
– the transistor radio
– the ballpoint pen
– the palm pilot
Histories of mobile media might start from a) the history of mobility, that is the relation of space and media and its historical transformations; b) the history of the telephone since the end of the 19th century; c) observations of historical tendencies of convergence & hybridization
From the theoretical point of view (c), the internet is reveiled retrospectively as as a special telephone screen:
“Although the personal computer's early word processing and data management capacities had nothing to do with the telephone, the telecommunicative power of the personal computer from the beginning has been entirely dependent on phone lines. […] As telephone lines themselves became digital in the twenty-first century, modems became unnecessary and gradually were replaced by faster devices that sent the digital data of computers directly through phone lines, without modulation and demodulation. In this "telephonicentric" view, then, the computer can be seen as an adjunct of the telephone, rather than vice versa - at least insofar as the Web, cyberspace, e-mail, instant messaging, Real Audio, MP3s, Amazon, all online shopping, and the like are concerned. The cellphone, then, becomes not only a better kind of telephone, but a better kind of Internet, which is unveiled as having been a special telephone with screens, written words, and images all along." (Levsinson, 28f.)
4. Knowledge and Memory
4.1. Memory and the construction of a (social) self
Nicola Green discusses the transformation of memory practices by mobile media: "Mobile phones, PDAs, digital cameras, and their increasingly networked connections via the Internet are all means to construct archives of the self as central spaces of autobiographical memory […]" (Green)
Mobile Media as memory devices are agents of the transformation of memory and memory practices. They can be thought of as "prosthetics" of the subjective and social construction of memory and identity.
Mobile media raise questions about how memory and media technology are inertwined, e.g. in the construction of a coherent narrative of self. Practically, they change the way we record, save, share and retrieve remembrances of our lives (past and present).
4.2. Philosophical and conceptual transformations of memory
David Chalmers supports the idea of the "extended mind". According to Levi Bryant, the extended mind hypothesis does not mean, that the mind is extended to its material surrounding (e.g. technological enhancement by smart media), but rather that "mind" itself is re-conceptualized as an "assemblage": "Within the framework of the extended mind hypothesis, mind is individuated in an entirely different way. Here mind is not a component in an assemblage, but rather mind is quite literally the assemblage itself. It’s not mind that is doing the extending, as wildly suggests, but rather mind is extended. Mind is extended across brain, body, and the environment. Or alternatively, mind is environment+brain+body." (Bryant)
The exended mind-hyptheses also implies consequences for learning, theaching and how we think about "knowledge" (e.g. possible usage of pocket calculators or wikipedia in exams).
5. Gaming and the 'quantified self'
5.1. Quantified Self
Melanie Swan: “The ubiquitous sensor hardware layer could start to provide a continuous information climate of passive data collection and background analytics. […] The increasingly routine 24/7 information flows could greatly extend the kinds of data available, the characterization of biophysical, environmental, and social phenomena, and ability to quantify, measure, and track anything. The availability of baseline norm, variability, and anomaly statistics for a wide range of dynamic contexts—home, building, automotive, environmental, and the self could mean a much greater understanding and capability for action-taking.“
The combination of sensors, data collection and statistical analysis leads to new practices of self-observation, self-management and supports the ideology of "self-optimization". With popular gadgets like Apples Smart-Watch, smart-bracelets and exercise- or fitness-tools like Nike+ fuelband the "QS-movement" must be understood as only the tip of an iceberg. It is related to a broader transformation of practices of discipline, control and care-of-the-self within contemporary technoculture.
5.2. Gamification
The cultural form of the 'quantified self' is often combined with concepts of "gamification". Jennifer Whitson discussed the crossover between gamification and the quantified self. Gamification is described as follows: "Game developers and designers define gamification in terms of utilizing game mechanics, technology, and development techniques from games in non-game spaces, while those from outside of the industry generally equate gamification with adding points, leaderboards and badges to non-game activities. Epitomized by online technologies such as Nike+, Mint, and Foursquare that pledge to make everyday tasks such as exercising, financial planning and socializing more enjoyable, gamification proponents promise to make real life more like a game."