Granny doesn’t understand what the Internet is let alone what broadband is. The wireless-router sits next to the DVD player she doesn’t know how to work, blinking at her all day. She is highly suspicious of it. For a start, it is using her electricity and she doesn’t like anything using her electricity, even essential lighting.
Granny asked if ‘that blinking box’ was responsible when my I-Pod broke. I’m not sure whether ‘blinking’ conveyed how she felt about it or referred to the lights. Either way she doesn’t like it but it had nothing to do with my I-Pod.
I don’t begrudge anyone not understanding technology. There is technology I don’t understand now and when my body catches up with my dress sense and I am an old man, there will be a lot more.
Today Paul Brannan, the Director of Emerging Platforms at the BBC, gave us a talk about the developing use of technology in journalism. He focussed mainly on mobile phones. It was interesting but instead of being inspired and excited, I was scared. I am computer literate but I am not a great one for technology and I suppose I felt as anyone reading a first edition of George Orwell’s 1984 may have done.
I am not a fan of smart-phones. But I’m slightly ashamed to say that a few months ago, I broke a pact I had made with my dear friend Jack Barry and got myself a Blackberry. Previously we both had vintage Nokias and had vowed it would always be that way. Sadly, as soon as Orange tempted me with an upgrade, I caved.
I am, however, strangely proud of the fact that I do not nearly get as much out of my phone as I could or, according to Brannan, should. For the first month the Internet services didn’t work. Then my friend Rupert, a Blackberry loyalist who regards the I-Phone as thoroughly as ‘nouve’, told me it was pointless having one without the Internet.
I got it fixed but I still barely use it. If I am out on match-days, I will check the football latest but that’s about it. I wish I had never installed the Facebook “app”. My day is constantly disrupted by invites to club nights in Newcastle and when I get back to Granny’s and sign-in, eagerly anticipating some juicy notifications I am disappointed. I always forget I have been checking them as they happen.
In the early days, I was a frequent BBM’er but the novelty has worn off. Almost everyone, even Jack Barry, has free texts now so the BBM is largely redundant anyway. The camera is certainly entertaining but I haven’t done any citizen journalism on it, unless sending pictures of midgets to my mates counts. The best part of my Blackberry is probably the games. I have had minor addictions to each of Brick-breaker, Word Mole and Poker at different times.
The thing that really irritates me about smart-phones is that people are constantly on them. If a lecturer pauses for breath, then a flurry of smart-phones spring out of pockets. But the most annoying is at the pub or dinner. I went to dinner party recently where the girl next to me put her Blackberry on the table at the start of the meal, like an additional piece of cutlery. It pissed me off.
I regard it as an insult if you’re having a chat with someone and their focus is divided between you and their phone. Am I that dull?
I even have a theory that smart-phones have been the ruin of good, old-fashioned debate, much in the same way that digital cameras have ruined the pleasure of looking through photo albums with the family. The first year of uni doesn’t seem long ago but perhaps strangely, my close friends and I didn’t have a decent phone between us. Halls could be dull and we often filled time with an argument or debate.
It was fun. It was usually after beers and someone would kick it off by saying something controversial or simply foolish. People would take sides and it’d be a cracking way to fill half an hour or so. Are Coldplay an “indie” band? Are Spurs a bigger club than Arsenal? Is the North better than the South? What language do the Bishops speak in Conclave? Etc etc.
None of these actually has a right answer (with the latter, no-one knows apparently) but if that kind of discussion starts up today, I find there is always some sad act on hand with an I-Phone to instantly tell you exactly how many trophies Arsenal have won and what the average wage in the South of England is. It was even more entertaining watching an argument based on fact – “I promise you mate that Kevin Pietersen’s middle name is Peter!” – but they are stamped out even quicker.
From a journalistic perspective, I can see the benefit of being able to receive news on your mobile. A journalist needs to know the moment a relevant story breaks so they can be on the spot to do their job. But from a public point of view, is instant news actually necessary? I’m inclined to agree with Ghandi who said, ‘There is more to life than simply increasing its speed’.
Brannan showed us a video – annoyingly I can’t find it now – advertising future BBC news services for mobiles.
It depicted people watching tele or listening to the radio as some of the biggest news stories of the past thirty years broke. A woman listening to the news of Mandela’s release from prison; people watching as the second tower was hit on September 11th. The final caption was along the lines of: ‘You know where you were when these stories broke…where will you be when the next big story breaks?’ It cut to a bloke walking through some woods, checking his mobile phone.
Call me old fashioned, but if I am enjoying a pleasant woodland walk with the dog, I don’t want my phone to update me with the news that George Osbourne has increased interest on my student loan. I’ve probably gone out in the woods to get away from my TV and laptop. I’ve taken my phone for emergencies but do I really need to know the second news happens around the globe? Not for me. I can wait until I get home.
Brannan did mention some interesting concepts – the idea of geo-tagging for instance. This will allow you to point your mobile at something and receive information about it. So if you pointed your mobile at Churchill’s statue, you might receive some extracts from a speech of his. Or if you pointed it at Parliament, you may get a brief history of the building or a link to Nick Robinson’s blog on British politics.
We might also be able to geo-tag people. So you could point your phone at someone and see a link to their Facebook page or what the last song they listened to was. (At this point in the lecture, I got nervous. What if Brannan was geo-tagifying me right now and could see the Hot Teen Coeds vid I’d watched the night before? But apparently, it is someway off and you will have to give your permission of course).
Brannan also mentioned tracking. Apparently companies in the US have started monitoring traffic by tracking mobiles. They do not know whom the phones belong to, but they can track where mobiles are built up statically, indicating where the traffic is bad. This seems a good idea, but the concept of tracking goes right back to Orwell’s 1984 and the “Big Brother” state. It’s a worrying one and another blog in itself.
I don’t want to be labelled a philistine who is anti smart-phones and technology in general. Most new technology is making our lives easier and more enjoyable. But its use is constantly raising more questions. As I mentioned in a previous blog, Facebook has changed our society. People are able to able to play out their lives in a different way, airing their dirty linen in public if they choose.
And news is also changing. It’s instant and global. I wonder how many people worldwide followed the Chilean Miners’ rescue blow-by-blow on their mobiles. Some technology has the air of being made simply for the sake of it. If smart-phones are so great and everyone has a computer, who can say they genuinely need an I-Pad? It’s just a big smart-phone/small laptop.
I can’t help but agree with Karl Pilkington when he said he wished technology would stop where it is. I don’t like the thought that if I want to go on a night out in the future, people will bring their mobiles in order to keep up with the news. I haven’t even touched on the issue of pricing. Many people can’t afford smart-phones. Are we in danger of leaving them behind? Not to mention leaving behind the technophobes like Granny…and me.
Living with Granny 