Interesting quote here from The Economist, April 12th 2008, regarding the tendency for young Japanese to use their mobile phones in new ways to stay in touch:
" ... entire cliques do this sort of thing, creating, in effect, their own tribal medium and narrative. Ms Ito [an anthropologist, researching the subject] has noticed a new genre of photography on the rise as young people use their phones to snap photos of everyday situations – the view from the escalator on the way to school, say – which mean a lot to their friends and nothing to anybody else. They especially love photos that capture "dumb things that their friends do", such as getting drunk and falling into puddles, which collectively amount to "everyday, casual documentaries" for a circle of friends."
I am not sure how "new" this particular genre of photography is – people have been taking cherished photos of seemingly mind-numbingly innocuous scenes for generations. You can come and sit through my last set of family holiday snaps to get that point.
What is new however is the fact that now nearly everyone carries a camera, nearly all the time, due to the proliferation of phones with in-built cameras. So whereas before I used to only pull out the camera to take family snaps on holidays, now I carry the ability take photos of anything or anyone, anytime.
It is hard to predict with certainty how this will affect our daily interactions. Currently most of us wonder when we'd ever use the poor quality cameras in our phones. But given their inevitable improvements in quality, it is a good bet that Ms Ito is onto something here. Teenagers in Japan famously have a freakish ability to pick trends. No doubt in time we will all increasingly use the capabilities of these phones to capture and convey meaning in unforeseen ways.
It is old ground to talk about the social etiquette of this. Laws have been passed to prevent unwanted photography around children for example. Society will develop norms of acceptability just as we do with every technological advance.
But in our line of work, there are implications. Some members of our Network are focused on 'stories' purely in their written or spoken form. Increasingly though we'll need to consider still and moving images as fertile ground for sensemaking. Clusters of employees around the watercoolers will laugh at photos of colleagues and customers; in return,customers will indignantly share photos of crappy service through guerilla Facebook groups. These are potent inputs for our projects ...
Comments (2)
This reminds me of the near-future society described by David Brin in his novel, Earth. http://www.amazon.com/Earth-David-Brin/dp/055329024X/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product
In Brin's world continual reduction of the ozone layer has made it all but mandatory to wear large brim hats and eye protection to go outdoors. In addition, a rising crime rate combined with an increasingly large group of retirees led to video camera and beeper carrying "crime watchers" roaming the streets. Over time the cameras and the need for eye protection combined into what Brin calls "True-Vu" goggles which provide real time video feeds. Groups of retirees gather in public places to record everything they see to fight crime.
The result is a society with little to none of what we call crime today because nearly everyone is under some form of surveillance all the time. Instead, privacy has become all important and laws have been passed regarding things like how close to each other people can get and to what extent eavesdropping is allowed.
Brin has a section at the end of the book describing the challenge of writing a near future novel. It's quite interesting and is his attempt at exploring just the sort of speculation over the impact of technology on society that you bring up.
Posted by Steve Holt | July 4, 2008 4:14 PM
Posted on July 4, 2008 16:14
One interesting use I've seen some of my friends do is that they set their phones to take a picture once every minute, and automatically upload it. They keep the phone/camera dangling from their neck, or mounted on the steering wheel of a bike, or on the car's dashboard. It is weirdly intriguing.
Nokia by the way, says that their phones are currently used for over 80% for uses any other than making phone calls.
Posted by Ton Zijlstra | September 6, 2008 3:57 PM
Posted on September 6, 2008 15:57