Rhetoric and Technology – ENC 6421

This article discusses the issue of time and space with regards to mobile technology.  ”Because mobile communication relentlessly changes the location reference, the space of the interaction is defined entirely within the flows of communication.”  People are constantly moving and their mobile devices allow them to stay in contact with anyone they choose.  People especially use mobile devices to setup “geographic coordination of small groups of friends” or anyone who wants to meet up.  Wireless technologies have started to replace the face-to-face interaction between people.  One contacts another to meet somewhere, and a message is sent saying whether it will will or won’t happen.  Mobile devices are also evolving into a more fixed device.  Some people only use their mobile device when calling from home or work.  A majority of calls will typically come from on e of these two places.  While mobile devices were meant to expand communication possibilities, it has also limited them.  People now have the option of screening calls.  They don’t answer unless they feel like it.  ”According to various surveys, American respondents are less willing to receive calls from employers outside working hours than Chinese respondents.”  Although there is the constant change of space, there are still limitations in communication.  The author also goes into text messaging.  This is the biggest use for cell phones with 73% of all texts going to friends.  Although they an be distracting, texts can allow a meeting to be set up in minutes, faster than email would be.  The author uses a good quote; “the more our new technologies allow us to accomplish in an instant, the more we seem to run out of time.”  Our mobile technologies correlate to both time and space but yet seem to limit both.  The last sentence sums ups the article by stating “the more information systems and databases can be accessed and interacted with from mobile devices, the more access to the space of flows becomes the decisive feature of social organization.”  -Chris-