Headline, October12, 2013

'''STEALIN​G THE DIGITAL SHOW '''

In many many parts of the world, more and more people have access to a mobile device than to a toilet or running water; and for millions and millions this is the first phone they have ever had.

In the U.S., close to 9 in 10 adults carry a mobile, leaving its mark on body, mind and spirit. There's a Smartphone gait; the slow sidewalk weave that comes from being lost in the conversation rather than looking where you are going.

Thumbs are stronger, attention shorter, temptation everywhere: we can always be mentally, digitally, someplace other than where are are. So how do we feel about this? To better understand attitudes about mass mobility a highly reputed magazine launched a survey of close to 5000 people of all income levels and age groups in eight countries:

U.S,the U.K, China, India, South Korea, South Africa, Indonesia, and Brazil. Even the best survey can only be a snapshot in time, but this was a crisp and textured one.   -and so it helped reveal where we are now and where the mobile wave is taking us next.

A tool your parents could never have imagined has become a lifeline we all can't do without. Not for a day   -in most cases not even for an hour!! In this survey, 1 in 4 people check it every 30 minutes. A third of respondents admitted that being without their mobile for even short periods leaves them feeling anxious.

It is form of a sustenance, that constant feed of news and notes and utter nonsense, to the point that twice as many people would pick their phone over their lunch if forced to choose. Three quarters of 25-to-29 year olds sleep with their phones.

If Americans have developed surprisingly intimate relationships with their gadgets, they are still modest compared with people in other countries. The Poll found that 1 in 5 Americans has asked someone on a date by text, compared with three times as many Brazilians and four times as many Chinese.

In most respects, overseas mobile users value their devices the same way Americans do but with a few revealing exceptions. Americans are grateful for the connection and convenience their phones provide, helping them search for a lower price, navigate a strange city, expand a customer base or track their health and finances, their family and friends. 

But in some ways Americans are still ambivalent; more than 9 in 10 Brazilians and Indians agreed that being constantly connected is mostly a good thing. America's 76% was actually the lowest score.

Carve up the U.S. population into the general public vs. high income, highly educated elites and some contrasts come into focus. Elites are most likely to say that they work long hours and have less time to think but also that mobile has made them more efficient and productive, able to manage more, stay away from the office, stay informed about the news and be a better parent.

Americans think that mobility has helped them achieve a better life work-life balance, vs. three quarters or more of Indians, Indonesians, Chinese and South Africans.

Like any romance moving from infatuation to commitment, the connection between people an their mobile devices reflects what they brought into their relationship in the first place. In countries where connection and convenience were difficult, these mobiles offer a kind of time travel:

Delivering in the push of a button or touch of a screen the kind of progress other countries built over decades. Which makes you wonder: just how much smaller and smarter and faster and better might our devices be a decade from now??

And how much about our lives and work and relationships is left to be completely transformed as a result?!! ....  So,....Just as remarkable as the power of mobility, over everything from love to learning to global development, is also how fast it all happened.

It is hard to think of any tool, any instrument, any object in which so many developed so close a relationship so quickly as we have with our phones. Not the knife, or match, the pen or page. Only ''Money'' really really comes close!!. 

With respectful dedication to Apple, Samsung, Nokia, BlackBerry, LG, Sony, Siemens. All great companies. All master manufacturers! 

See Ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

!!! ''' An Obligation ''' !!! 

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless