Title: Social Implications of Mobile Technology in Developing Worlds
Author: Michelle Walls
Source: Little Bits & Pieces: A Digital Media Blog
Date (published): 12/12/2009
Date (accessed): 27/12/2009
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Malcolm Gladwell said “poverty is not deprivation. It is isolation.” Often the smallest technological advances create the largest social impacts, take the Internet for example. Technology impacts the developing world in great ways because the contrast it has to the developed world. Mobile technology is no longer the shiny new accessory; it has succeeded in the developed world and I argue it can help provide a cure against the isolation Gladwell mentions. Companies and governments already know the opportunities mobile technology can bring to the developing world, but what are the social implications? Unable to participate in the global market because of the lack of technology, these developing worlds see the affect of inadequate communication by being unable to compete for a piece of the global profit. Mobile technology can change lives, but in what ways? Despite how fascinatingly different cultures around the world are the inability to understand all of them prove that communication is important and universal. Within this paper we’ll step outside the traditional studies of mobile technology in the developing world and focus on the social implications using case studies and examples. I will look at three social implications: the blurring of livelihoods, family communication and the pursuit of relationships.