Cellphones: once a status symbol, now a necessity

"American teens are just catching up to those in Asia and Europe in using the cellphone for everything from talking and text messages to games," says Namoi Baron, Professor of Linguistics at American University. Part of ownership for the wave of younger buyers is the perceived need to remain a player in the peer-to-peer communication game. The other is to stay au courant with fads and styles - amassing more than one phone body, for instance, for use as fashion accessory or in collecting musical "ring tones." Those are distinctive minisongs that users stockpile to allow them to identify individual callers, a demand that has generated a billion-dollar industry (Pop singer P Diddy won a music award last week for best ring tone).

Nor are the cellphone's new buyers willing to fall behind in the burgeoning world of global, mobile entertainment - using the cellphone as a nexus for all kinds of mobile products to consumers from magazines to sports to online books. This field is expected to generate more than $27 billion in revenue with 2.5 billion users by 2008-2009 according to Airborne Entertainment, which distributes such brands as A&E, Berlitz, HBO, The History Channel, and NHL to the mobile marketplace.

One of the growing uses for mobile phones among youth - and generating innovation for the rest of us - is video games, now at about $100 million in annual sales and expected to double by next year.

"Gaming is one of the areas that is driving some of the craziest innovations in cellphone use," says Mitch Lasky, CEO of JAMDAT.mobile, a leading global wireless publisher. High resolution cameras, liquid crystal screens, faster processors, and new forms of graphics have all been developed by such firms as Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola, spilling over into advances for general consumers. The size, shape, and definition of cellphones will continue to morph as they become more central in consumer's lives, say experts.

If the meteoric rise in cellphone possibilities are generating great expectations by new consumers and companies, they are also generating warning signals in some corners. Talking on the phone while driving has long been a safety concern. And shrilling rings that shatter the quiet of restaurants or the enjoyment of a concert audience has been the standard annoyance since cellphones first proliferated in pockets and handbags. But one of the newest debates swirls around balancing connectivity with the need for solitude.

"What does 'alone' mean in a wireless world?" asks Dr. Robbie Blinkoff, a consumer anthropologist who has published several ethnographic studies on cellphone users, known as "The Mobiles."

Voicing an oft-heard observation, CEO Silk says he recently crossed the Ohio State campus and couldn't find a teenager without a mobile or music headphone in their ear. As in decades past, the students did not congregate and share stories, he says, but rather remained connected to others solely by cellphone. Other sociologists worry that teens use all their free time messaging or talking to friends so that they no longer spend enough time in mental solitude crucial to understanding a separate self, problem solving, and allowing space for creativity and intuition.

"If you talk to students you often find they have trouble being alone," says Baron. "Some argue that cellphones make it possible to have larger social safety net and that that contact is good. I argue that part of what makes a human being is the ability to be alone with no one to help [think] through a number of difficult circumstances ... to figure out who [we] are, where [we] want to go, who [we] want to be. At some point [students] need to stand on their own two feet."

But the need to always be connected to others may naturally settle with time. "Those who used to complain that they couldn't get away from their boss at work or find any peace, are doing much better in taking control by turning off their cellphones whenever they want," says Dr. Blinkoff.

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