Mobile devices and social OCD

Ok, so I admit I carry my phone around with me day in, day out. I feel naked without it. I have a 'smart' phone, but over the last month and a half I have found it liberating that my sim card has failed and gives the 'no data activity' error ...the crazed-OCD-finger-swiping-seizure is there still…

I am not alone. This short film has had over 33 million hits on YouTube, and was a wakeup call to myself and fellow 60% of Gen Y’ers who compulsively check their smart phones and spend more time interacting on their mobile devices, than with the world around them (cisco, 2012, p2) 

By turning my phone off for a day or two at a time, immersing myself in the real as opposed to mobile world and force myself to make eye contact, I am attempting to retrain my brain to remember things once again, instead of relying on Facebook posts and photos to do this for me. It is challenging.

I love having Google at my fingertips, and know I'd be lost without my phone, but I also have grievances, with what has also been lost...

Banter and trivial conversations, where are you?! Now, it’s a race to see who can find the answer first, google, imdb, wikipedia... Facebook allows updates to the world, so when you finally meet, conversation often comes to a grinding halt.

Staying in touch with family and friends near and far has never been easier. And, parents can stay in touch with their ten year olds ...(?!!)

Gluesing (2009) uses Eisenberg's model of identity to explain her perspective on identity and mobile devices, allowing her to view the intertwining in both positive and negative lights. Gluesing says integration allows for better functionality, communication and collaboration,  for both personal and work related identities. But, this hybridised life also creates anxiety and feelings of claustrophobia, with a breakdown of barriers between all aspects of daily life, and a lack of personal space.   

Professor Sherry Turkle studied for over 30 years what this constant engagement means for our culture and our society, and says our devices are changing the way we communicate and interact with each other, and who we are as human beings. (Moyers interview, 2013) 


 “Everyone is always having their attention divided between the world of people [they're] with and this ‘other’ reality.” children now grow up, not knowing what it is to be bored and having to use their imagination.” (Turkle, 2013)

Ingrid Richardson (2007), says the 'mobile phone is customarily accepted almost as a body part or appendage.

On that note, here is Google’s new concept. 'Project Glass',  a futuristic ultra-connected augmented reality that displays nearly every Google product in a pair of glasses. The hands-free prototype can pull up maps, directions, events notifications, and the locations of nearby friends right in a wearer's line of sight. (note: morality and privacy issues to be resolved…) (See Klepic, 2013 for further reading.)

References, Links and Further reading:

• Cisco, 2012, 'Cisco Connected. Word technology report.  Gen Y: New Dawn for work, play, identity'. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns1120/2012-CCWTR-Chapter1-Global-Results.pdf 
• deGuzman, C & Crawford, M. 2013 video: 'I forgot my phone' Viewed 23 November 2013 
• Gluesing, JC 2009, 'Identity in a virtual world: the coevolution of technology, work and lifecycle', in Meerwath TL, Gluesing, JC & Jordan, B, Mobile work, mobile lives, Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, USA,  <http://www.swin.eblib.com.au.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/patron/Read.aspx?p=428280&pg=71>.
• Richardson, I 2007, 'Pocket technospaces: the bodily incorporation of mobile media', in Goggin, G 2008, Mobile phone culture, Routledge, London, pp.66–75.
• Moyers and company, interview aired 18th Oct 2013,  Sherry Turkle on Being Alone Together | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com, accessed 24th November 2013
• Turkleton, S, 2013 Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other review and TED talk, accessed 24th November 2013
• Klepic, J, 'People aren't seeing the legal problems ahead with Google Glass', 2013  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jure-klepic/people-arent-seeing-the-legal_b_4113417.html accessed 24th November 2013