Culture is now changing smartphones
First, a revolutionary technology changes culture. Then, over time, culture changes the technology. This is happening with smartphones. Why?
It’s easy to think that Artificial Intelligence is changing absolutely everything and anything from how we eat pickles to our global systems. It is doing neither, nor very much in between. Yet. It’s far too early to make any solid predictions.
But perhaps the single most world changing technology that has come along recently isn’t AI at all. It is the smartphone. It swooped in like some technological angel in the hands of Steve Jobs and his siren call of “…one more thing.” What a thing it was.
I’ve written before on how a revolutionary technology sweeps into a culture, ignites change and then eventually, culture changes the technology to fit norms. Sometimes evolved norms in lockstep with the technology and other times, bringing the technology in line with the prior norms and behaviours.
I believe, based on this premise, that we are now entering the phase where we are beginning to impose evolved and prior social norms and behaviours onto smartphones. Culture is changing the technology.
Culture is more than just the arts, it includes economic and political systems along with customs, traditions, norms and behaviours. Cultural elements are applied in different ways regarding technologies.
The smartphone is a revolutionary technology made up of a number of different technologies that impacted our global sociocultural systems in various ways. GPS, cameras, email, software, batteries, displays and so on. Many of the technologies in smartphones came out of the military industrial complex. Smartphones are a prime example of the combinatory powers of exponential innovation.
How Smartphones Changed Cultural Norms and Behaviours
Setting aside dizzying and often rehashed ways we’ve used smartphones, what’s more important with any technology is the impact on culture. The first iPhone, more than anything else, instantly became a social status symbol. The only brand to come close to the iPhone in status terms has been the Samsung. Even though Android devices have the most marketshare, none have matched the iPhone as a status symbol.
The reason Apple has Pro and Pro Max devices has little to do with the devices capabilities and everything to do with social signalling. The social signal? The pro and pro max have 3 camera lenses on the back. And we often today, when in social settings like a lunch or dinner, place our phones face down. This is to signal that we are focused on our social interaction in real life, not our phone. We all look at each others phones…check yourself next you’re at a dinner or lunch! The arrangement of the lenses on an iPhone or any other phone, immediately sends a social signal.
The first social signal of mobile phones was having a squiggly antenna on the roof of your car around the late 1980’s. Then it was the monster of the giant Motorola bricks one carried around. They were expensive then. Data? That was a character on Star Trek.
Phones got smaller. More people could afford them. Air time packages got cheaper too. First they were more of a business signal, a status of employment and that whatever your place on the corporate ladder, it was important enough that the company paid for your phone.
The corporate uniform of the late 90’s was beige slacks and a pale blue button-down Oxford shirt and a cell phone clipped to the belt. Largely the same for women, or slung on the outside of their purse. Taking a call at a lunch or dinner? You were important, you just had to take that call. Even if you didn’t. This signal and use was in movies and TV shows. Like the pager before it, the way to get out of a bad date.
Then along came Bluetooth. And everyone was walking around with a thing on their ear with a steady blue flashing light. We could drive better with them too. Now you could signal your status all the time! You could even pretend to talk to someone…which if you liked talking to yourself became a bit easier for a while.
Cell phones to early smartphones were all about social signalling and rules around behaviours and norms were fickle. While it’s hard to pin down the first news media article on cell phone etiquette, it was in the early 00’s that it became a more common topic. Just prior to social media’s arrival on the scene.
Through news media articles in magazines, newspapers, radio, online and television shows, culture began to set the rules. They were largely fluid and adapting. But social norms and customs hadn’t fully kicked in.
Over time, it has become a social norm to put your phone face down or keep it in your purse, handbag or a pocket during social meals. We may walk around with wireless earbuds, but there’s no blue blinking light. Maybe white dangly things (AirPods are a social signal still.) Companies may offer cubbies outside meeting rooms. It’s somewhat acceptable to take pictures and share at events, but that too, is starting to slow.
Using a smartphone standing in a queue is acceptable. Whatever did we do before? Now there is the term “phubbing” where we intentionally ignore someone in front of us and look at our phone. People with loud ringers, especially funky ringtones, today get glared at. With our phones so close to us and smartwatches or always-on-earbuds, do we really need ringtones?
How Culture is Changing SmartPhones
Where once phones were mostly considered just a social or entertainment device, they are increasingly seen as a utility of every day life. Much like a stone axe was a million plus years ago. Back then we used a stone axe to get our dinner, today we hold our phone to a payment device to buy our dinner.
Culture has decided that a phone is an integral life tool. Actually talking to people is a secondary function and probably one of the least used features.
Some countries like Finland, Greece, Canada, Sweden and Germany consider internet access a human right. It is likely that smartphones too will be considered the same way in the future. Governments may set minimum data rates and price guidelines in place to ensure equal access. This isn’t so far-fetched when we consider public pay phones enabled emergency and operator calling for free. It was considered a social good.
We are changing how we see the role of smartphones in our sociocultural systems. Culture is now starting to change the role of the smartphone in our societies.