Communication breakdown
James Katz finds a disconnect between perceptions and realities of cell phone use
Archived article from Oct 20, 2003
By Lori Chambers
Social, mobile and infatuated by technology, Americans are, not surprisingly, suckers for cell phones. What other sleek, well-designed, hand-held convenience so complements those defining elements of the American psyche: freedom and independence, comfort and instant gratification? According to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, more than 150 million Americans — well over half of us — own cell phones.
Despite this pervasiveness, cell phones and other wireless technologies have not met the same academic scrutiny among social scientists as, say, the computer, to which entire academic journals are devoted. In fact, through the decades, the social aspects of the telephone and its wireless progeny have been addressed by only a smattering of books and articles — some bankrolled by the telecommunications industry.
Enter James E. Katz, a professor of communication at Rutgers’ School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, whose scholarship focuses on the interplay between technology and social processes and its effects on personal, organizational and cultural spheres. For nearly two decades, inspired by a stint as a senior scientist at Bellcore research labs, Katz has been hooked on the telephone. He has parlayed that interest into a score of peer-reviewed journal articles and many books, including “Connections: Social and Cultural Studies of the Telephone in American Life” (Transaction Publishers, 1999).
Far from being a critic of the cell phone, Katz extols the technology’s many benefits, from providing personal convenience to saving lives. “The mobile phone has become a transformative device, often for the better, but it also has unintended and paradoxical consequences,” says Katz. “The irony is that the mobile phone tends to nibble away at the very benefits it achieves.” Using many of the research methodologist’s tools, both qualitative and quantitative, Katz is gaining insight into the perceptions and realities of the cell phone in modern life.
Perception: Cell phones mean more freedom and less stress.
Reality: Cell phones do give us more physical freedom, says Katz. We can slip away to the beach without missing an important phone call. We can run errands while waiting for Aunt Gertrude to call from the airport or get “unlost” when seeking to visit the homes of friends for the first time. But the price of physical freedom may be psychological constraint. “In interviews in India, Turkey, Israel and many other countries and cultures, people consistently use the term collar,” says Katz. “People who carry mobile phones feel like they have a collar around their necks.”
Cell phone users can be called to account more easily than others because they are available anyplace, anytime, anywhere. New demands and expectations are placed on the perpetually available, thus potentially changing the tenor of relationships. People who are reachable 24/7 are more subject to social control, whether from work or family. “Mobile phones allow us more choices but also create some huge restrictions,” says Katz.
And while mobile phones may alleviate the stress of not knowing what is going on with friends, family or work colleagues, paradoxically, they increase the stress of not being in touch — always. Explains Katz, “People expect that if anything should happen, they will be contacted right away through the mobile phone. The reality is that now people become nervous when they don’t get a message. Every time they go in and out of a car or building, they quickly reach for their security blanket in the form of a mobile phone.” Surveys and interviews consistently show that mobile phone users report anxiety about the possibility of missed messages. “Now they have something new to worry about,” says Katz. “Plus it is no longer optional: you get pressured by friends and relatives to always leave the phone on, that is, to stay on an invisible leash.”
Perception: Cell phones enhance personal security.
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