Why phones are replacing cars |
And why this is a good thing |
| “PARKS beautifully”, boasts an advertising hoarding for the XDA II, above a glimpse of |
| its sleek silver lines. “Responsive to every turn”, declares another poster. Yet these ads, |
| seen recently in London, are not selling a car but an advanced kind of mobile phone. |
| Maybe that should not be surprising. Using automotive imagery to sell a handset makes |
| a lot of sense for, in many respects, mobile phones are replacing cars. |
| Phones are now the dominant technology with which young people, and urban youth in |
| particular, [id:33784]. For what sort of phone you carry and how you customise it says a |
| great deal about you, just as the choice of car did for a previous generation. In today’s |
| congested cities, you can no longer make a statement by pulling up outside a bar in a |
| particular kind of car. [id:33785], you make a statement by displaying your mobile phone, |
| with its carefully chosen ringtone, screen logo and slip cover. Mobile phones, like cars, |
| are fashion items: in both cases, people buy new ones far more often than is actually |
| necessary. Both are social technologies that bring people together; for teenagers, both |
| act as symbols of independence. And cars and phones alike promote freedom and |
| mobility, with unexpected social consequences. |
| At first, the [id:33786] of both cars and phones was defined by something that was no |
| longer there. Cars were originally horseless carriages, and early models looked suitably |
| carriage-like; only later did car manufacturers realise that cars could be almost any |
| shape they wanted to make them. [id:33787], mobile phones used to look much like the |
| push-button type of fixed-line phones, only without the wire. But now they come in a |
| bewildering range of strange shapes and sizes. |
| It is to be [id:33788] that mobile phones are taking on many of the social functions of cars. |
| While it is a laudable goal that everyone on earth should someday have a mobile phone, |
| having cars all around produces mixed feelings. They are a horribly inefficient mode of |
| transport - why move a ton of metal around in order to transport a few bags of |
| groceries? - and they cause pollution, mainly in the form of nasty gases. A chirping |
| handset is a much greener form of self-expression than an old banger. It may irritate but |
| it is [id:33789]. In the hands of a drunk driver, a car becomes a deadly weapon. That is not |
| true of a phone (though terrorists have been known to rig mobile phones to trigger |
| bombs). Despite concern that radiation from phones and masts causes health problems, |
| there is no clear evidence of harm, and similar worries about power lines and computer |
| screens proved unfounded. Less pollution, less traffic, fewer alcohol-related deaths and |
| injuries: the switch from cars to phones cannot happen soon enough. |
| www.economist.com |