An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator... these are NOT three separate devices! And we are calling it iPhone! Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
- Steve Jobs
This week's topic on my educational journey is Mobile Devices. A selected group of students, Group A, delivered an outstanding and thorough presentation on the topic and addressed to our learning group many questions regarding our usage of mobile devices.
They posed questions such as 'what type of mobile devices do you use?', 'are you obsessed or addicted?', 'are we turning into cyborgs?', 'how safe and secure will mobile devices be in the future?', and 'future gaze: what would you like your mobile device to be able to do in the future?'. Each tasks required us to look into our own mobile identity.
Mobile devices have evolved quite rapidly over the past decade (or two/three decades, I still think the 90's was only ten years ago *awkward*). As Steve Jobs put it, Apple developed a universal device with various operating uses called the iPhone.
I am user of many Apple products (MacBook Air, iPad, iPod, iPhone and AppleTV) and find my usage of my iPhone to have eliminated the use of my iPod, however it has increased my use of my iPad and MacBook Air as iCloud allows me to sync all devices and thus makes using either one more convenient as all are generally up to date. There is convenience in not having to pick and choose which device to take on my travels or which to glance at first in the AM for my social media and news updates. I can take one or all, it really doesn't matter. In saying that, I am a self-confessed addict.
Like my previous blog, where I confessed to being a social media addict, consequently makes me a self-confessed mobile device addict - as my iPhone is my main tool to access social media apps or websites.
Has this addiction, some likened to a smoking addiction, caused me to turn into a cyborg of sorts? That being, has my online (mobile, if you will) identity become my reality? Has my mobile device become my primary source of communication? Even when in the presence of human company?
Contemplation lead to the hopeful belief that I have not let my mobile device take over my life. Repeat: HOPEFUL belief. I hope it hasn't taken over my life. I make a conscious effort to not have my mobile device on or near me when I am at the dinner table, whether at home or out. I always have my phone on silent when asleep but also rely on it for my daily morning alarm. To stop unwanted or distracting social media updates, I simply log out of each app or turn off the notification option and avoid distractions altogether.
Security and safety was also a theme and privacy featured in many discussion posts. The heavier points regarded hackers getting into your bank accounts and social media updates about where you are or who you're with or not. The previous being an obvious security issue if you insist on imprinting your bank or credit card details on the world wide web. I personally have had my account hacked and emptied and after my bank alerted me to the oddity, I stopped all online banking. However, the convenience of a mobile app for banking, I now am back in the world and hold onto the hope that my bank has the skill to prevent future hacking. The latter regarding check-ins or status updates that broadcasts seemingly harmless information can lead to some very dangerous circumstances. What if the common criminal uses social media as a tool to find their next victim...they can track down people's whereabouts and source whether or not they are at home and rob them or worse assault them in their home if they know they are alone. Some very terrible circumstances but not outside the realm of possibilities.
On top of those security issues, we were directed to read an interesting and somewhat horrifying article about an app that allows you to control the movement of cockroaches - RoboRoach. I was conflicted as to whether I found the app realistic in relation to humans. Could the future hold similar apps that could control us? A little too Sci-fi for my liking but again not outside the realm of possibilities. In line with that we were also asked what we thought the future held for our mobile devices. Many of us insisted on apps that could help improve our everyday lives (almost what apps already intend to do). Apps that could lock your house, turn on your car etc I simply would like an app that could tell me the contents of my handbag so I don't have to waste time digging through it.
Ultimately our future seems to include further evolution of mobile devices (iPhone 5S already has fingerprint scanning). If we insist of their daily use we are going to have to insist of behaving more diligently. Be more aware of what you broadcast to the world, protect yourself! Ignorance gets you nowhere in the real world so why would it help your mobile identity.
Lmao Lori, that made me laugh, your idea of an app that could tell you the contents of your handbag :D The range of apps out there is growing at a phenomenal rate, there are apps for just about everything. I do agree with you that security is always an issue on the web. Hackers and fraudsters are always looking for the scam. I am always very aware of this and never click links or open mail from sources i am not sure of. Recently i received an email from supposedly Telstra that displayed a link to go to a page to claim a refund i supposedly was entitled to, i knew it was fake cause i am an Optus customer, but easily many people would get conned with an email such as that, it looked very authentic. There are many vulnerable people getting exploited everyday, awareness is the key! I really enjoyed your post this week, great read, look forward to next weeks :)
ReplyDeleteHi Lori,
ReplyDeleteSo many areas of great debate. I was particularly interested in your ‘behaving more diligently’: such a difficult area to define. Everyone seems to be a master at justifying their need to check their phone every 10 minutes. Even parents of smartphone-numbed toddlers easily justify such abuse. I’m an optimist, but often I doubt we could regain a balanced state of affairs. All I can do is behaving diligently in my ‘small’ world.
Cheers,
Elisabetta
Hi Lori,
ReplyDeleteAn excellently presented and intriguing blog.
I think regardless of how safe and secure we think we are there will always be people who try to ruin it for us and hack into our lives and steal our money and identities. We can always implement new practices but people will always find a way around them!
There are definitely pros and cons of being attached to our mobile phones and even though the idea is to make everything more easy and convenient for us, I get quite scared thinking what the future holds for society!
Thanks for a great blog
kristy
You have raised some interesting points Lori especially on security and safety. I certainly think everyone should be more vigilant in regards to their banking and what information they put out there for the world to see. I mistakenly left on the geotag feature with my Instagram account and it pinpoints your house to the almost exact address. I have since removed them all and am much more aware of it going forward. However some younger and more innocent users may not be so worried or aware of this feature and be advertising their daily schedules to the predators that may exist.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback everyone!! It's a difficult dance we are doing with safety and security.
ReplyDelete