HyeRi Jung/ CMN 622/ Dr. Monje/ January 26, 2008/ Short Online Review #1/
b. A critical analysis of a new media technology.
One day I forgot to bring my cell phone from my home, and I still remember how unbelievably that day was hard for me. I even felt unsafe just because I didn’t have my cell phone with me. After that day, I’ve realized how heavily I am relying on my cell phone; I frequently check text messages, make phone calls, check my emails, etc. When has cell phone overwhelmed my life pattern? Theoretically, the mobile phone is a portable electronic device used for mobile communication. In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, current mobile phones provide a lot of extra services such as SMS for text messaging, accessing to the Internet, and sending and receiving photos and video. Our cell phones are not simply telecommunications devices anymore. Cell phones now even provide previews of new films, download novels, etc. According to Henry Jenkins’ book, Convergence Culture, anthropologist Mizuko Ito has studied the growing number of mobile communications among Japanese youths, and described how young couples constantly remain in contact with each other throughout the day. They literally live together even though they live miles apart and only see each other face-to-face a few times a month. Tele-cocooning means when people stay in contact every moment by using their cell phones: waking up, working, eating, and going to bed all together. Convergence happens and comes to real when people take media in their own hands and use it. Henry Jenkins has had an experience related to cell phones as well. In the book, he says that when he went to the store to buy a cell phone to only make phone calls, there weren’t single-function cell phones. He didn’t want any extra services such as a video camera, a Web access device, or a game system. He just wanted a simple phone to make phone calls. However, Jenkins was told that mobile companies don’t make single-function cell phones anymore because nobody wants them. My experience earlier on and Jenkins’ experience about cell phones demonstrate a powerful fact that mobile phones have indeed become one of the most important media convergences today. I see people using their cell phones on the street all the time. They all look self-focused and busy. Today, more and more people are becoming reluctant and uncomfortable to talk to people in face to face because they are so used to sending text messages and talking on their mobile phones. However, I can’t deny that cell phones are very useful tool, and I have to admit that I can’t live even a day without a cell phone. Convergence indeed happens and comes to real when we use media in our own hands.
