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Culture on Demand: Don't Call Us...
Mobile phones are giving the fashion-conscious a complex
By STAN STALNAKER
September 18, 1999
Web posted at 9 a.m. Hong Kong time, 9 p.m. EDT
We've been trying to put our finger on whatever it is at the core of "post-crisis" Asia culture and have come to a terrifying conclusion: it could be the ubiquitous mobile phone.
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Before you hang up, we realize this is not a sudden revelation. Mobiles have been on the scene at least as long as Madonna, which is to say an eternity. Perhaps longer. But only in the past couple of years have they moved from a perceived luxury to a standard cultural commodity.
Asia is way ahead of everywhere (except maybe Scandinavia) in terms of cultural integration of our '90s noisemakers. "Cultural integration" in this case means the point to which something is so ingrained that it is nearly invisible and universally accepted--like choking on diesel fumes, if you live in Hong Kong, or believing Clinton didn't inhale. (Or even just believing Clinton.)
Mobiles are the first electronic consumer good to achieve fashion-like status, effectively ushering in a level of one-upmanship unseen since the cold war. Lately it's not enough to be connected--you must have the games, the array of click-on cases in designer colors, the hands-free option ... the list goes on. It's probably only a matter of time before Prada and Nokia team up to produce themed collections.
You know the story: you're sitting at a restaurant when the phone rings and everyone grabs his or her own mobile, placed conveniently between the steamed shrimp and tea set for easy access. The offending phone vibrates down toward the garoupa as someone comments: "Oh, the new Motorola. Is that tri-band?" Or "Look, no antenna." Or "Silver? When did they start making that in silver?" Or "It's light but the buttons are so small ..."
It's enough to give the fashion-conscious a complex.
For Asia, the mobile has become more a tool of freedom than a tool of annoyance, because we've all had a mobile faux pas, and etiquette, if not always followed, is developing. The complaints seem to be waning as the masses give up on ever sitting through a movie without hearing one go off at least once. (Hey you in front--turn it off!) But at least people are trying. We know a girl who accidentally left hers on during a yoga seminar. Let's just say the vibe wasn't good, and she knew it.
The great thing about all this mobile mania it is that they are allowing us to improve mobility without sacrificing contact. And with the coming integration of handsets with Internet capabilities (next-generation technology), the mobile will be an even bigger part of busy people's lives. If you think juggling two people on call waiting while you answer your office line and figure out which is your boss and which is your dinner companion is tough, imagine what life will be like when CU-SeeMe, the videoconferencing technology, goes mobile. We shudder.
Unless, of course, the "radio waves cause brain cancer" urban legend doesn't halt the whole revolution. It's the perfect horror story for our generation: an addictive habit involving the mouth that causes cancer. Hmm. The recent proliferation of hands-free earphones seems to be fixing that, but now we have to deal with people walking down the street yelling at themselves.
Oh well. Call us later.
Write to us at mail@web.timeasia.com
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