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From the Stone Age to the Phone
Age
Groundbreaking New
Global
Study Explores Behavioral Effects of Mobile Phone
Use
SCHAUMBURG, Ill., -- October 15, 2001 – From
Beijing to Birmingham, Chicago to Shanghai, mobile technology has made a radical
difference in the way society works and plays, according to a major new
behavioral study, On the Mobile, commissioned by industry leader,
Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT). From men showing off their cell phones in public as
symbols of status or even virility, to teenagers competing with each other for
the coolest new technology, there is no denying that cell phones have
permanently changed the way people
interact.
The ground-breaking study was
conducted by leading academic Dr. Sadie Plant, who was recently named one of
TIME magazine’s “People to Watch” in its 2000/2001
winter issue. Dr. Plant traveled to nine
cities around
the world to conduct research for On the Mobile: Chicago, Tokyo, Beijing,
Hong Kong, Bangkok, Peshawar, Dubai, London and Birmingham. Using a combination
of personal interviews, field studies and observation, Dr. Plant identified a
variety of behaviors that demonstrate the dramatic impact that cell phones are
making as accessories to conduct life, love and work.
“Whatever it is called and however it is
used, the cell phone alters the possibilities and practicalities of many aspects
of everyday life,” says Plant. “The cell phone changes the nature
of communication, and affects identities and relationships. It affects the
development of social structures and economic activities, and has a considerable
bearing on its users’ perceptions of themselves and the world.”
Some of the major findings from On the Mobile
include:
- Personal Power: Cell phones have given
people a new-found personal power, enabling unprecedented mobility and allowing
them to conduct their business wherever they go.
- Gender Differences: Females tend to value
their cell phone as a means of expression and social communication, while males
tend to use it as an interactive toy. However, evidence suggests that males are
becoming far more chatty and communicative as a result of cell phone use.
- Male Status Symbols: Men have a tendency to
display their cell phones more proudly, using them to display their aggression
in front of other men, and almost like a mating ritual in front of women.
- Stereotypes: Dr. Plant identified six
distinctive types of cell phone users based upon common traits and
characteristics, and compared these types with six different kinds of birds.
Owls, for example, tend to keep their cell phone use to a minimum, making and
taking only necessary calls, while starlings tend to be more aggressive, pushing
their way through crowds while talking loudly on their cell phones.
- Innies and Outies: There are two distinct
types of cell phone users - “innies” are quiet, discreet and
unobtrusive with their mobile conversations, while “outies” are
louder and less concerned with the perceptions of people around them.
- Secret Phones: Many cell phone users keep a
secret second phone to conduct love affairs or clandestine business deals, or
even just as a hotline between friends.
- The Thumb Generation: Texting has had a
profound effect on the way teenagers use their thumbs in some regions. Because
they are used to tapping out numbers and messages with their thumbs, they now
point and even ring doorbells with their thumb instead of their forefinger.
As a brand that has been at the
forefront of the mobile technology revolution,
Motorola commissioned this study to learn how
people around the world are exploiting this technology and how it has changed
their lives.
“Attitudes about cell
phones are different in different cultures,” said Helen Normoyle, senior
director of Consumer Insights for Motorola’s Personal Communications
Sector. “The cell phone is helping people to cross borders - both physical
and cultural. The ever-evolving changes in the way it is used may tell us much
about the changing nature of the world and its cultures in the
future.”
Mobile technology, specifically
the use of cell phones, has become an integral part of modern life around the
world. On the Mobile provides a detailed first look at how this
technology has radically influenced human behavior.
For further information, an interview with Dr.
Sadie Plant or copy of the report, please contact:
Sue Frederick
Motorola,
Inc.
(847)
523-6555
sue.frederick@motorola.com
Dan
Shaw
Hill and
Knowlton
(323) 966-5668
A complete online media kit is available at
www.motorola.com/mediacenter.
.
# #
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Background on the
author
Sadie Plant was born in Birmingham, UK
in 1964, and read Philosophy at Manchester University. She graduated with a
First Class Honours degree in 1985, and completed her PhD in 1989. After working
as Post-doctoral Research Assistant at Queen Mary and Westfield College, she was
appointed Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham in 1990.
Her first book, The Most Radical Gesture, The Situationist
International in a Postmodern Age, was published by Routledge in 1992. In
1995, she was appointed Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, where she
established the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit.
In 1997, she left the University of Warwick to
write full-time. Zeros and Ones, Digital Women and the New
Technoculture, was published by Fourth Estate in London, and Doubleday in
New York, and her most recent book, Writing on Drugs, was published in
1999 by Faber and Faber in London, and in 2000 by Farrar Straus and Giroux in
New York. Sadie Plant has published articles in publications as varied as the
Financial Times, Wired, Blueprint, and Dazed and Confused.
Her work has been discussed in much of the UK press and several overseas
newspapers and journals. Most recently she was named as one of the “People
to Watch” in the Winter 2000/2001 issue of Time.
MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the
US Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the
property of their respective owners. ©Motorola, Inc. 2001
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