Mobile Identity: Youth, Identity, and Mobile Communication Media
By: Gitte Stald
What an interesting article to read while sitting in my class with my students reading all around me. I was quickly sucked into the article after reading the title. I loved how the author said that “the focus of this article is on the meaning of the mobile in young people’s lives” (Stald p.143). For this blog I will refer to phone instead of mobile, the author being from Europe calls it a mobile.
Mobile phones are becoming part of every student’s life these days. I teach 5th grade and I would estimate that at least 75% of my students have phones and use them on a daily basis. I think that initially parents got the phones to stay connected to their child for various reasons including having both parents working or for emergencies. These reasons are one of the reasons why the Stald discusses in depth about the phone being mobile. You can have it with you all of the time. Its not like a computer where you only can access friends or information in certain places.
According to a recent Pew foundation study they found that “The mobile phone has become the favored communication hub for the majority of American teens.” Stald also found out that 70% of young people would rate phones as important.
Stald then goes on to discuss his second theme related to presence. Young people today could be standing right in front of you but be somewhere else. For instance they might be in the room but be texting a friend or listening to an mp3. His third theme discusses the use of a phone as a personal log. Students are taking pictures of important events with their phone and sharing them with many different people. Today’s phones can easily have Facebook or other social media sites on them. The Pew study also found out that American teens were:
- 83% use their phones to take pictures.
- 64% share pictures with others.
- 60% play music on their phones.
- 46% play games on their phones.
- 32% exchange videos on their phones.
- 31% exchange instant messages on their phones.
- 27% go online for general purposes on their phones.
- 23% access social network sites on their phones.
- 21% use email on their phones.
- 11% purchase things via their phones.
Stald’s last theme was social learning, he stated that it “may be understood as learning through social interaction and learning about social norms” (Stald p.159). He goes on to discuss how teens will use phones everywhere without disregard. Teens are learning when it is appropriate to text a friend or where and when to place a call if they are in a no cell area.
Stalds article as well as the Pew research show many examples of how important phones are in teens lives. One statistic that I am concerned about is that texting is now the number one way that young people are communicating. I wonder if this is for the good or the bad…
Article for the Pew Research student on Teens and Mobile Phone Usage.
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Teens-and-Mobile-Phones/Summary-of-findings.aspx#footnote1
Michael,
ReplyDeleteYou and I found some of the same information from Pew, just in a different format! Your fifth graders mostly have phones? Really? I live in an affluent and tech-savvy town, but I would say phone usage doesn't really ramp up until about 7th grade around here. Perhaps I'm just not seeing it, though.
I wonder about the level of privacy afforded by an all mobile phone society. Are phones (and texting etc.) just another way for teens to carve out adult-free space? We seem to slip further and further into parallel worlds; adults on the one hand, teens on the other and never the twain shall meet until well after college. Is that inevitable?
Hi Jesse, Unfortunately (I am not a fan) most of them do. For various reasons including status, latch key kids,divorced parents they all seem to have them. Just today one was ringing during lunch in their backpack argh....I also wonder if teens just want to be like adults and so they emulate what they see, texting all the time, talking in public, being rude etc...
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe your fifth graders have cell phones! If I understood correctly, you read the article with your students? What were their reactions about the article?
Lizzeth, we talked about the article. Most of them agree with the author. The sad thing is most of their phones are better than mine. Luckily our school has a policy that no phones are allowed in the classroom. All of my students hang their backpacks in the hall and they are supposed to turn off their phones.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar question about youth and texting; I wonder if it phone use by youth 'good thing' or not. I heard a story on NPR the other day discussing mobile technology in general. The premise was that many adults are concerned about youth today and all the techo gadgets that take up their time. Examples discussed were video games, phones, computers etc. The reporter commented that many people are worried that the U.S. (and other modern countries) youth are spending too much time with/on these devices. His summary was that people thought T.V. was a problem would be the demise for all (some might argure it has), then it was computers and the internet, now it is the mobility of the technology. His conclusion was that we are experiencing growing pains but will, as a nation, figure out some balance. An example he shared related to texting. Some cities and states have passed 'no texting' laws to prevent accidents.
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteI have experienced what Gergen described the phenomemon of being physically present in one space and mentally present in another as "absent presence" with my son. I just felt that he was disengaged with me and not paying attention to our conversation. I feel it is import to learn socially polite norms such as being fully engaged with the person you are physically with and disengage with the mobile phone. What do you think?
Some of my fourth graders have cell phones. We are a small community and the practice fields for soccer, football, and baseball are closed by the schools. Sometimes students walk together for practice after school in small groups... parents want to know that they made it to practice safely. We also have a policy at school about turning off cell phones as they arrive in the building or the teacher may keep the phone until the end of the school day.
ReplyDelete