The way we talk to one another has evolved in leaps and bounds over the past few decades. This change is particularly driven by the revolutionary invention of the mobile phone. As Marty Cooper, the 96-year-old inventor of the mobile phone, recently mused, that’s quite a change. Here’s what he had to say from his home in Del Mar, California. As it happened, his invention, the DynaTAC 8000X, set the course for the world’s smartphones, of which over two billion have since been produced. He observes that “there are more cell phones in the world today than there are people,” illustrating the ubiquity of mobile technology in modern society.
As new communication options have developed, so have the ways people use them to keep up their social connections. Claude Fischer, a sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, argues that we underestimate the value of phone conversations. Today, they’re a necessary ingredient for creating those close relationships. He notes, “The phone conversation has become the way to communicate the most intimate of social ties.” This change marks a broader trend towards needing more voice calls in an environment that is overall becoming more text message-oriented.
Yet, the influence of mobile phones goes far beyond just convenience. Indeed, mobile technology has drastically changed the way we interact with society and each other. Jonathan Haidt’s recent bestselling book, The Anxious Generation, captures the profound ways in which technology has changed human development at a large scale. He writes that social media platforms are “letting loose a firehose of addictive content.” This avalanche of online diversions displaces time spent with friends on physical play.
A new Gallup poll released this January found that up to 37 percent of Africans would prefer to live abroad. This is the highest rate of wanting to move in the world. This alarming statistic underscores a deepening frustration. This lack of furthering harms communities in areas of disproportionately low connectivity such as northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state. Abdulmalik Saidu laments the poor mobile connectivity in his area, stating, “Sometimes we stay for weeks without network.” These barriers are a terrible impediment to communicating expertise and talent, and they severely limit valuable opportunities for education and employment.
Shamsu Deen-Cole, 73, recalls his experiences with long-distance calls to his parents in Sierra Leone, which often involved meticulous planning. He described how making a call would take days of coordination to ensure his parents were available when he called. “Calls would cost around $150 for under 10 minutes,” he noted, emphasizing the financial burden associated with early communication methods.
As it turned out, Cooper’s vision of a device that would be “an extension of you” has come true. And that in the not-so-distant future—as it becomes more sophisticated—he envisions every mobile phone eventually providing real-time health monitoring. These devices will be sampling a user’s body every second and automatically transmitting that data to physicians. His inventions revolutionized communication, and they might now be on the verge of doing so for healthcare too.
The generational divide in communication preferences is just as clear. Bryndal Hoover, an 18-year-old, expresses a preference for voice calls over texting because she finds it helps her understand conversations better. In contrast, others like Ayesha Iqbal rely heavily on texting for casual interactions, saying, “The only person I call on a day-to-day basis is my cousin.” This gap is a testament to how younger and older people use technology differently to stay connected.
For Karen Wilson, the conversations were first carried over party lines shared with other people on the shared line outside of Buffalo, New York. She thinks back fondly to the days when people had no choice but to call on neighbors rather than call a mobile device. “Well what did you do if you didn’t sit and wait,” her granddaughter questioned. Wilson replied, “You went down to their house and you yelled, ‘Hey, Mary, can you come out?’” These sorts of stories are a fun reminder of how much our communication practices have changed in recent years.
With today’s mobile technology, we can communicate instantly around the world. Read more on how easily Tabane Cissé is now able to make investment decisions from Spain. He showcases his innovative interactions with his native land. He remarks on the emotional impact of voice calls: “It’s as if I was standing next to her,” referring to conversations with loved ones.
Though mobile phones have changed the landscape of communication, they have introduced new challenges. Countless others continue to struggle to provide safe, dependable service. Yet even in Northern Nigeria, lack of productive connectivity blocks personal conversations and impedes functional commercial transactions in industry. The urban versus rural digital divide continues to underscore inequities, which have always existed as it relates to access to technology.
Even today, Marty Cooper continues to play an influential role in discussions about mobile connectivity and what it means for the future. He notes that even with all the regional and technological advances improving our connections, “we’re just getting started.” Technology development continues to greatly advance at a rapid pace. It will most definitely change the way we communicate in general and interact with each other personally, with friends, and even with our community at large.
