ePhones

Will the mobile phone screen become the dominant screen of the 21st century? Do we really need another screen to view movies, take photos, design art and access the Internet?

Almost nine and half years years into the 21st century the mobile phone, as far as I have witnessed, has already proved to be the dominant screen, and as far as my imagination can project I cannot foresee another screen taking over. Sure, developments may occur to the mobile phone but I cannot see an entirely different screen entering and dominating the market.

With a mobile in your pocket you literally have access to every source of communication used in the modern day. Social networking sites can be accessed, emails can be received, games can be played, video conferencing can be initialised, text messages can be sent and received and phone conversations can held. In addition to this, maps and GPS functions can be used, music can be purchased and played,memos can be recorded, photos can be taken, and movies can be made and produced.

Phones are so dominant within our lives it could be said out freedom, our privacy, and our sense of self is being encroached upon. This phenomena/feeling can be compared to Foucault's thoughts on modern society based on Jeremy Bentham's

"Panopticon" design of prisons.

Jeremy Bentham designed a prison system based on a "sentiment of invisible omniscience" (see image to left). Bentham himself described the Paopticon as "an new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example". Prisoner's whom were confined within prisons of Bentham's design were under a constant state of 'perceived' surveillance. As the prisoners were never aware of when or if they were being watched, but knew they were in a position for constant surveillance, as consequently their behaviour was modified cater to this. The chances of them 'letting their guard down' was heavily reduced knowing they could not escape the gaze of the watchful eye, regardless of whether the watchful eye was actually there.

Michael Foucault used Beatham's design to establish the idea that "modern society exercises its controlling systems of power and knowledge. Increasing visibility leads to power located on an increasingly individualized level, shown by the possibility for institutions to track individuals throughout their lives. Foucault suggests that a "carceral continuum" runs through modern society, from the maximum security prison, through secure accommodation, probation, social workers, police, and teachers, to our everyday working and domestic lives. All are connected by the (witting or unwitting) supervision (surveillance, application of norms of acceptable behaviour) of some humans by others." In this case of the mobile phone it is not so much 'visibility' that is the relevant factor, however the constant state of alert that it places us in can have a similar effect.

Mobile phones are part of the integrated social network that keeps us (you and me) under surveillance - but instead of being visually surveyed by a guard we are being surveyed by our friends, our family, our work colleagues and our clients. We can always be contacted; kids are only a phone call away from their parents; our bosses can contact us at any hour of the day; clients can call a mobile outside work hours and family can check in at any time of the day. Whether you are home or not, no longer matters. You are assumed to always be available, and that assumption dictates your actions. Most people feel obliged to take a phone call and from this can we ever truly feel relaxed or alone/have total privacy? It seems to me that we live in a constant state of alert. These latter factors are what made me draw a correlation to the Foucault's Panopticon-based theory.

As was the case with my eSex post, Donna Haraway's cyborg theory is once again particularly poignant. It could be said that phones have become such a dominant feature in our day today lives that many would struggle to live without them. I for one know that I would definitely struggle to eliminate mine from my life. Haraway may argue that this need, this attachment one has with their mobile phone, places people into the realm of being a Cyborg; that the mobile phone has become part of them; that without them they would be unable to function as they would like.

"Hi, my name is Liz and I am a Cyborg."

I am 100% behind the Cyborg theory when it is applied to mobile phones. Shamefully it has got to the point where my friends make jokes if I do not have my phone at hand...and the fact that I feel lost if I do not have my phones at arms reach proves to me that my phone has become part of me!