CCDN 271, Assignment 3
Substantiating Claims
For my Research
assignment I am asking the question, why are people attached to their mobile
phones? In this day and age most people in the first world have a mobile phone.
They have become such a major aspect of people’s everyday lives that they have
become an integral part of us. People
have become so attached to their mobile phone that it has become a sort of
obsession. I believe the reason why
people have become so attached to their mobile phones is because phones can now
do almost anything in a convenient, portable compact unit. With the IPhone for
example, you can not only call and text, but also surf the web, check emails,
and socialize with other people while on the move.
An article in the
Sydney Morning Herald written by Barry Park (2012) on the 19th of
March this year, titled ‘Smartphones and tablets lead dashboard revolution’
talks about how Geneva Motors are starting to incorporate smart phones and
tablets into their new car models. They ask the question ‘why do we have a greater
attachment to the phone than the car’. I think that is because most people do
have a mobile phone, where as not many people have a car so they haven’t become
a part of many peoples everyday life. In the article, Associate Professor Frank
Vetere from the University of Melbourne’s department of computing and
information systems, says the reason why people are so attached to their mobile
phones is because ‘of our inherent need to communicate’ He goes on to say that
the role of a mobile phone is really important in peoples lives, especially in
younger people, and that they use their phones to control a lot of their
personal life. Vetere states that ‘Once people start expressing
themselves through their phones, they're going to form an attachment, so [for
younger people] there's an attachment with a phone’
I think article is extremely relevant to my research
topic. As is does give one answer to my question. The answer Vetere gives in
the article isn’t the only answer to my research question but it gives a very
good one. A mobile phone is something that people can personalize to reflect
who they are, whether it is the case they use or the background picture, it is
a way of communicating and expressing themselves to the world. I agree with what Vetere says about our need
to communicate- that we want to be able to keep in touch with people.
If everyone had the exact same phone, there would be
nothing special to distinguish one from another, so I think people wouldn’t care about it as much and it
would just become an object that everybody has. If that were the case, people
wouldn’t be able to show off what they have or express to the world who they
are. The ability to express ourselves with an object is one of the reasons I
believe that people get attached to their objects, no matter what they are. So
I think that what Vetere says provides good evidence to explain why people are
attached to their cellphones.
Reference:
Park, B. (2012, March 19). Smartphones
and tablets lead dashboard revolution. Stuff.co.nz. From http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/motoring/6598982/Smartphones-and-tablets-lead-dashboard-revolution
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