Death by Cell Phone
by Jennifer Altavilla
It's 6 o'clock in the typical American household. The family finally sits down to dinner after a busy day. The phone rings. More often than not, a computerized telemarketer or pollster is waiting expectantly on the other end of the line. The chicken and mashed potatoes slowly congeal as Mom explains how she doesn't want a new credit card or doesn't wish to participate in a "ten-minute" survey.
However, according to a survey by the U.S. Center for Disease Control, that pre-dinner ritual is becoming less frequent. The survey, which involved in-person interviews with members of 13,083 households, reports that 16 percent of American households exclusively own cell phones, meaning, that they cannot receive unsolicited calls (i.e. telemarketers and pollsters) from computerized dialing systems according to federal law. The survey results, released on May 14, also show that 13 percent of households own a landline, but rarely receive calls on it. Therefore, almost 30 percent of American households—as of the second half of last year—rely either entirely or almost entirely on mobile phones.
Why is it that Americans are suddenly so averse to landlines? In 2004, only 5 percent of American households were completely wireless. Now, one-third of all Americans under age 30 rely only on cell phones. The reason for the rapid shift from landline to cell phone cannot simply be attributed to a general hatred of telemarketers and pollsters. In actuality, the wireless phenomenon is the product of people's insatiable thirst for fast, efficient, and convenient information, combined with their growing ability to quench that thirst with new technology.
Americans-especially those under age 30—have become accustomed to having a vast universe of information at their fingertips thanks to the high-speed internet. Although, as Brad Stone of the New York Times says, blogs, user-generated content services and online news sources have "created a dense info jungle that no human could machete his or her way through in a lifetime." Americans have come to expect quick and convenient information. What is worse, because of the availability of information, people have come to value information not for its quality or accuracy, but for its speed. The quest for information has become a competition, both in the news industry and within the American public at large. Everyone wants to be the one to break the latest celebrity gossip or hottest news story over the office water cooler.
Not only has the internet caused people to desire and expect fast information, but it has bred an entire new social networking philosophy and has literally changed the definition of being "connected." The under-thirty crowd (who rely most heavily on cell phones) aren't satisfied with talking to friends and family once a week or even once a day. To them, being "connected" infers a state of constant contact. They flock to sites like Facebook and MySpace, which permit people to keep track their friends every minute of the day-to see who they talk to and when they talk to them. Other sites like FriendFeed allow people to display all their online activities in a single broadcast. Web-addicts can share what websites they have visited, what picture and videos they have uploaded, and what articles they have posted. Such digital networks, which have become necessary social tools for people under 30, not only foster connectivity, but also promote what Stone calls the "serendipitous disclosure of needles in the information haystack..." the kind of usually mindless, yet entertaining nuggets Americans crave.
Because the internet has become such an integral part of most Americans' lives, it is not surprising they should expect internet-like speed and connectivity from their phones. Someone accustomed to chatting with their friends online at any time of day-and to talking frequently, but for short periods of time-will understandably not tolerate the inflexibility of the primitive landline. A cell phone, which can be brought to work, carried to the shopping mall, or stored in a pocket is a more appealing and efficient option. Instead of having to wait and call from home, people can maximize their time and call while stuck in traffic or while walking to the grocery store.
For better or worse, transmitting and receiving information and staying in permanent contact has become even simpler with the invention of multi-media devices such as Blackberries, Palm Pilots, and iPhones. These all-in-one phones, computers, calculators, and calendars will probably cause the antiquated landline's ultimate demise. Slow, inefficient, and inconvenient landlines will most likely become obsolete within the next generation or two, once the majority of the population is computer-savvy, and once multi-media devices become cheap enough for everyone to own. Whether a completely wireless society-which will probably further increase the competition for information and make digital networks even more essential social devices-is healthy or even plausible remains to be seen. However, it would at least put those irritating telemarketers and pollsters out of business
