A great many things have taken place over the years. The mainstream use of computers, cell phones, changes in governments, how people think about news, console game systems and a host of other elements have changed. However, some of the biggest changes come from how mobile we are now. Gone are the days of being stuck in one place at a time, gone are the endless sounds of dialup connects sounds raging out from behind our computers. This ability to pick up and go, become mobile with anything we do as changed how we do just about everything in our lives.
Computers have gone from the rich man's play toy to the common man's mobile office. These mobile offices have changed how we do our work, how fast it is done and how information can be transferred. A reporter at the scene of an advent can now write a story, upload pictures to it and send it off, all without needing to go back to their office or home to do it. A stockbroker can monitor a client's stocks while out to eat, all thanks to being mobile. Need to check your emails, see who won the big game, just crack to open your laptop and see.
If being mobile with your laptop has not been enough, the changes in technology for when it comes to the cell phone you have in your pocket right now as changed too. The 80s had more than big hair, for those of us that remember mobile phones than were as big as bricks, and weighted the same too. Now your mobile phone is referred to as a cell phone. That cell phone holds as much technology as your typical laptop computer. Being able to get alerts, check emails, post on forums, and goes to class online and even read a book. All while being mobile and staying connected. Being mobile keeps information flowing even when you're stuck in traffic.
Changes in how many governments today have taken place as well. The progress from little beepers that sat on everyone's hip, to now, their cell phone in their pockets sit ready to be used for any issue or anything that might ever come up. Mobile technology has taken many of the outdated ways of not just communicating but thinking about how information is received and changed it. A person in government can now get reports and important documents while being mobile send them to other people in government, keeping the information safe the entire time. No more need to have extra aids do that work, or lost files being left in some room somewhere. These mobile technology changes have not just changed the working world, but the social one as well.
As this is being written a chat box pops up, the person on the other end is in the middle of the jungle in South America. They send photos and videos of what they are doing right this minute. The writer might not be mobile, but the person on the other end is. The writer can share in the moment of what is happening. I want to see a live birth on the web you can. Someone with a mobile phone somewhere can share the experience with friends and family. Even if that family is halfway around the world. Staying connected while being mobile was the first intent of the technology, but being mobile has done more than keep us connected. It has shaped how we see interaction with others. How we let others into our life has changed. There are a lot fewer secrets on what we do behind closed doors, because many of those doors are no longer closed in such a mobile community.
But like with anything there are always draw backs. Being mobile has changed some things that can never be undone. Yes, that mobile reporter can report their news, get it out to the public faster than someone else, but is that news correct? Is there a disconnect between how we interact with people personally over the persona's, we create for ourselves while being online? To many degrees, a mobile society might be more open in what we share, but we have become more closed off in how we share it. The chat with our neighbors over the fence has been replaced with a quick nod as we rush off on our days. Being mobile has replaced the handshake with the clicking of keys. A viewing screen has changed how we see our friends and family as well. These things will never be undone; they can only be fixed, but not until we see that there are honest problems with how we interact.
Yet things of a mobile community are not about doom and gloom either, we are able to do things now that could never have been thought of before. The lives that can be saved because two doctors from different ends with the world can speak about patience's needs or the children who have been found that were missing, and the local police can get the information out faster. These improvements in communication have been heavily weighted toward the positive. Being mobile, taking that plunge is no longer a risk like it once was either. Those risks have been replaced with excitement; that excitement turns into passion, and even if we start to fragment as an interpersonal mobile society, we have come together in other areas that were unheard of.
A child who is scared to fly can take a mobile gaming device on a plane. Being able to waste away the hours before a flight while being drawn into what they are doing. Before long, the plane lands and they are off on their way; the fear is still there but sedated by what they were doing. Mobile games, or for a more current use with the word, handheld games can do everything from teaching us to read to break digital bricks. These simple changes have also changed what we do. So, has mobile technology changed the world? Honestly do you know anything different?
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