[Podcast] What does it mean ‘having a phone’ in the 21st century?

[ Introduction ]

Hello and welcome to this quick and snappy podcast narrated by your truly, Naomi. In this episode, I’ll guide you through my analysis of our phones. That’s right, those technological devices that you can’t seem to live without anymore. Which brings us to the first question: why can’t we live without them anymore?

These devices have integrated into our lives like parasites, feeding from our insecurities, imaginations, desires, and anxieties to survive. Especially the youth are now associated with the phrase “But my phone is my life!” when parents prohibit them from using their phones during family dinners. Try imagining a 21st-century teenager without one of those devices glued to their hands. You’d become worried when one does NOT have one. I also want to state that teenagers aren’t the only ones who are addicted to their smartphones. Infants, adults and the like are also guilty of high screen-time.

So, since when did we depend so much on these rectangular boxes? 

[ Let’s go back to the 1880s ]

“Breaking News: the Scottish-born American Alexander Graham Bell just acquired the first US patent for the telephone. Congratulations, Mr Bell. Thank you for making the first time instant communication possible over long distances.”

[ How incredible is that! So, no more excuses for long-distance relationships. Sorry, guys.]

On a side note, it was actually Italian Antonio Meucci who was credited for making the first basic phone a few decades earlier. 

Okay, so we’re still in the 19th century, a tough time for many people, such as women. Seen as inferior to men, they did not have the same privileges as men. In the beginning of the invention of the telephone, they had to travel to a general store to be able to make a phone call. And even when the telephone slowly entered the household, they still had to answer to their male counterparts. At this time, in a male-dominated society, women had no obligation to interact with technology. [Ugh, the scandal!]

So, it’s kind of astonishing to think that one such novel invention could make such a partriacial separation: men who had the power to use technology for business inquiries and women who, if allowed, could use the telephone for friendly chatting. Or in some extraordinary cases, women were allowed to use the telephone for their jobs. [What progress we have made, guys]

Speaking of changes over time, the telephone itself also went through some changes by evolving technologies. And with that, communication too. 

[ Globalisation and Connectivity ]

So, we’re back in the 21st century. Nowadays, the telephone is wireless [Thank god]. It allows us to bring it with us wherever we go. [How convenient, right?] We can bring it with us. We’re always available, 24/7, day and night… Whether this is good or bad is up for debate, depending on various factors. But unlike at the time of its invention, today, any person of any background has, generally speaking, easy access to a phone. There are, of course, some cases when this is not the case, but according to a recent report by Datareportal, around 71% of the world population has a phone.

Think of the amount of people you can connect with?! On the one hand, this is incredible in terms of globalisation. Shared knowledge, connectivity, and expanding your world. On the other hand, this can become dangerous. With people spreading false information, sharing harmful content under often anonymous profiles. Anyone has access to this global connective sphere. And unfortunately, humankind isn’t always the most pleasant. In a way, humans have become parasites, feeding off the internet.

Before we go spiralling too deep into this unpredictable digital social sphere, let’s take a step back and analyse what it means to have a phone in the 21st century.

[ Pierre Bourdieu and Social Capital ]

So now we’re going to focus on a phone as a cultural good, an accessory, as a status amplifier. Enter socialist Pierre Bourdieu, renowned for his contribution to the general theory of sociology. Our French pal here might consider a smartphone nowadays as an objectified cultural capital. Now, what do I mean by cultural capital? Well, that’s like a material object that carries cultural value and reflects the social status of someone. For example, books, musical instruments, but also academic credentials or personal traits are considered as cultural capital, according to Pierre Bourdieu. Now, according to him, these kinds of objects don’t just represent wealth, but they symbolise a person’s cultural knowledge and practices. 

It’s important to note that this only works when that person actually knows and understands how to use this kind of cultural capital. So a phone, for example, is only valuable when you know how to use it. Otherwise, it loses its cultural value. And this shows that a phone in the 21st century isn’t just a device through which communication is possible. It’s also a device that communicates your social status.

And this is especially visible when you compare and contrast the phones of different people. Each phone has a different background or phone case, for example. Some have personalised it with stickers or maybe put a photograph behind the case. And others still have the phone as if it just came out of the box. So personalising a phone by hanging cute key cords or phone charms or a fancy pop socket, therefore, becomes an aesthetic object and a moral one. It’s like a declaration of order, scare, and wealth. This leads us to the next question:

How do we use our phones as a performance of ourselves in public?

[ Performing Telephones ]

What do I mean by performance, you ask? Well, the Canadian sociologist Erving Goffman once wrote about how social interaction is like a performance of a desirable self. Think of your life as a theatre, with a backstage and a frontstage and wherein you are the actor. If you are on the front stage, you behave or perform according to the expectations of the audience. And most often, we want to show our best selves because we’re ashamed of any embarrassing or awkward moments. Well, backstage is the place where there’s no audience. So also no expectations to respond to. This is the place where you can relax and just be yourself. You also have the offstage, and this is the space where the actor and the audience meet independently. And this is away from any other group performances on the front stage.

Now, what does this have to do with how we use our phones in public? You know those movies wherein someone plans with a friend to stage a fake call to get out of a situation he or she wants to avoid? Or maybe you have even done something like that yourself in real life. Think about it this way, and the phone becomes a stage prop. It becomes an object that not so much is used to communicate in the original sense. Now it communicates something in another way, like a signal.

For example, when you’re at a party or some other kind of social gathering and you see someone on their phone, does the person look approachable, or do you wait until they put their phone back? I would probably just wait until that person is off their phone because he or she seem really busy or they’re in the middle of something, you know? And this made me wonder whether they were consciously choosing to look unapproachable or if they were actually doing something on their phones.

And another social setting where the phone can signify your manners is the time at the table. Imagine you come home and your parents just cooked a delicious meal, your favourite. And it’s the time when all family members gather around the table to enjoy each other’s company. Stories are being told, and gossip is being spread. You laugh and smile, and then, to the side, you see a light lit up. It interrupts the overall warm ambience with a flashy blue light. And then you realise it’s someone’s phone. Or maybe it’s yours. That’s also possible… Oopsie… One of your parents immediately asks you to put it away as if a phone were an intruder on the dining table. It shows that someone is not fully present in the moment. And in a family gathering, you would like to be present in the moment with your loved ones, right?

[ Ways of interacting with phones ]

First of all, I’ve mainly talked about phones in a social setting, but for a final topic, I want to analyse what a phone can mean at micro level. So the way in which we interact with our phones. For example, you have my parents, my brother and me. Well, my parents send me text messages, and my brother, who is like just a few years older than I, prefers to send voice messages. And another thing, my brother and I hold our phones in one hand, you know, with the pink under it, the middle three fingers supporting the back, and then we use the thumb for scrolling. Contrary to my parents and grandparents, who often use two hands, or if they use just one hand, they do so in a way as if they’re holding a bottle, and they use the other hand for swiping and clicking. So the ways in which we carry and handle our phones also signal something about us. And if we think back to the moments when the telephone was first being used, so in the 1880s, and compare that with the possibilities we have nowadays, it’s astonishing to realise how much has changed over time. From a wired exclusive phone to a wireless social artefact.

Another development is the amount of options we have nowadays regarding phones. So we now have all kinds of different brands we can choose from, like Apple or Samsung. There are different models and they come in different colours. Contrary to the first few mobile phones, which were so new and highly priced that you wouldn’t dare customise them. However, this is the 21st century, and our culture likes to stand out in some way. Maybe not always too much, but we do like to treat our phones like they are our personal friends. We still put a high value on them, but not in the same way as in the beginning, since we don’t have to share them anymore with others. And this is why we’re not afraid to dismantle it or give them a more personal touch. It’s for ours to use.

But in an age of consumerism and modern capitalism, how personal can we actually make our phones? TikTok makes an excellent case as a platform for trends to circulate, like seasonal fashion trends. And who doesn’t like to go with the latest trends? Because if you don’t, you risk becoming an outsider. There can be a fear spotted here in this exclusion, and oftentimes this exclusion carries negative connotations. [ I just also want to be clear that it’s okay to follow trends and that it’s also okay if you don’t. That’s my mentality, and unfortunately, that’s not how everyone sees it. ]

[ Who chooses your taste in style? ]

So let’s rewind for a bit and go back to the 1960s, when George Simmel argued that “fashion mediates between individuality and conformity.” There’s a drive to distinguish ourselves from others while also having a desire to imitate them. And our phones help us do exactly that. You choose, for example, a phone case that feels like you, but that part is actually just constructed by bigger markets. It feeds from what the biggest part of the population wants and predicts their needs. And this is how some trends die and new ones come alive. It’s like an endless circle.

So who actually determines the latest trends? Is it the people? The ones with institutional power? Or maybe the algorithm?

[ Wrap-up ]

To wrap it up, I have given you some insight into how we used phones back in the old days and how we use them now. And I have shown what one invention says about an individual and a social collective, and how it has defined a whole era. With technological developments still in progress, maybe it’s now time to ask what role the phone will be playing in the near future and what that will say about humanity.

Thank you for your time, and I hope that I have given you some kind of existential crisis. Oh, and if you’d like to know more, please see the references attached to this episode. Narrated by yours truly. Okay, bye!