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Me, myself and my
cell phone
The mobile phone is
fast becoming the most important gadget of Pakistani youth. Kept in their
jeans, shalwar kameez, in hand or in school bag, it is becoming a very
central device that appears almost to be transcending its status as a gadget
or an object to becoming an instrument for something far more important.
Increasingly, the mobile phone is fast becoming the means of affirming the
youth’s own identity.
Generally, the youth is preoccupied with how others see them and the image
they reflect, and through this process they have to find a way to build
their own identity. This period is defined as adolescence (the age between
12 to 18) and is the time that best identifies with the mobile phone usage
and culture. This is because during this period the individual personality
asserts itself and the growing need for autonomy is increasingly filled by
the mobile phone. Thus, the mobile phone plays a symbolic role in the entry
into adolescence as a symbol of freedom and sociability.
The cell phone is an extremely personal medium. If my phone rings, I can be
pretty sure that somebody is trying to reach me and not anybody else. This
personal nature of the medium helps strengthen the identity of young persons
who are still in the process of building their own personalities and are not
necessarily always treated by others as real individuals. Here, the mobile
phone can be seen as an object that helps adolescents know about themselves
by allowing it to become part of them, reflecting them like as a kind of
mirror in which they find themselves but where the other person can also see
them.
This role of the mobile phone in the development of the self-concept is sub-categorised
into a material self (focus on having friends), a personal self (focusing on
image and identity of self), an ‘adaptative’ self (focus on the
competencies, adaptation, autonomy) and a social self (focus on
socialisation, relationship to friends and others). If you have heard people
say “my mobile phone represents an important part of myself” or “it’s like a
friend to me” or “it would be impossible to part with it”, it means that
they are making personal self statements. The material self is expressed
through the possession of the object: “I like to have a mobile phone”, “it’s
important that it’s beautiful, fashionable, stylish, etc” or “it’s more than
a communication tool”. The social-self is manifested as mobile phone’s role
in facilitating social relations, like “The mobile helped me to stay in
touch with my friends all the time,” while if you feel that the mobile has
helped you to become more independent, you are talking about the adaptive
self.
But why are these ‘self-concepts’ linked to mobile phones’ importance?
Because they contribute to the user’s self-confidence, and makes them feel
free and energetic, known to sociologists as self-perceived competencies —
the confidence you gain from handling your mobile phone well.
The youth is also a time of fashion, a need to follow others and reject what
is ‘out.’ To become part of the group one needs to be like the others, but
at the same time needs to be different. Young people show their difference
by personalising their style on the mobile phone. And in this arena,
personalisation can be achieved by means of coloured covers, stickers,
painting your own designs, ringtones, wallpapers, special antennas or
through special carrying cases. Thus, a part of your personality is
automatically associated with and in the phone, making it even more personal
than it is.
The mobile phone also permits the youth to escape the notion of time and
space, making it possible to connect to the rest of the world any time of
the day and night and from anywhere. This can also be interpreted as a need
to feel alive, or to rephrase a popular quote “I call, I send an SMS, I
communicate and, therefore, I exist.”
Living in adolescent times, one goal among teenagers is to be able to create
new modes of communication that would permit them to understand one another
without totally being understood by their parents, the older ‘outside
world.’ If anyone has ever used the language of ‘FAY’ in our youth (Tafum,
Kafam, Jaf Jafay Jfo) they will understand this phenomenon immediately. The
use of the SMS in this context has been assimilated into the creation of a
new language TXTing — a code which only they, the youth can understand. Trst
m3 prnts fnd TXTng hrd 2 rd!
The SMS also offers a good medium for dealing with difficult face-to-face
interactions. Thus, the SMS may well be defined as a facilitator of
communication among adolescents, particularly in case the conversation
content is linked to intimate or difficult subjects.
Finally, their identity is also formed by the powerful forces of marketing
and advertising images. These also shape how the youth ultimately use, feel
about and perceive their mobiles. The images portrayed play an important
role not only in influencing, but also reflecting individual relationships
with these devices creating identification with the product even before the
act of buying it. Boys, especially, resort to expensive or really stylish
brands in order to convince themselves and their peers about their
trend-consciousness. They also have a greater want than girls to present
their social status by showing off their material welfare and cultural
capital. This is driven in a large part by the images they see on their TV
screens.
After getting used to owning a mobile phone, it is very difficult to imagine
living without one. Leaving it at home creates a feeling of lacking some
essential part of oneself. It is hard to believe that in a way you are.
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