There are so many forms of digital technology available today and they all help us to communicate with each other. But do you ever wonder how all these new forms of communication impact or change the way we relate to each other and to society in general?
Dr. Gerard Goggin from Sydney University in New South Wales, is a serious expert on communications technology and how it might impact our culture and society. He has written several books on mobile phones and other digital technology, from a cultural view point.
Gerard believes it’s not technology which shapes people, it’s people who shape technology.
“There are many forms of communication available but it’s people who drive the use of technology in their lives, they decide which form of communication most suits their needs. SMS messaging, or text messaging as it is commonly known, is a perfect example of this.
In the 1980’s and early 1990’s no one saw text messaging as a form of communication which would be so widely used.
“The youth culture is very innovative with technology. It’s the youth culture who took to mobile phones with incredible enthusiasm and kicked off text messaging.
“Inventor's and marketers of technology thought ISDN (telecommunication data networks) would be extremely popular, but text messaging turned out to be far more popular - and no one saw it coming.
“Users played a crucial role in taking what looked like an impoverished form of communication to the common use form of communication it is today.
At first, text messaging wasn’t marketed but when people began using it, it was strongly marketed,” says Gerard.
“In this sense, it’s people who provide new possibilities for technology.
But it’s not just text messaging the youth culture are responsible for making popular, it’s the whole idea of taking photographs and sharing images.
So what about the latest digital technology tools, such as third generation (3G)? How will young people use it in their daily lives? What aspects will they take up and use?
“This is an example of the complex relationship between technology and what people want to do with it. They can invent it, but it’s our choice as to what we do with it.
“No one really knows how we will use 3G technology in our lives, for example mobile games and mobile TV,” says Gerard.
Time will tell.
More about Dr Gerard Goggin
Dr Gerard Goggin is currently researching a five-year ARC funded study of mobile phone culture, policy, and regulation. Published widely on new media, Internet, mobiles, telecommunications and disability, he is author or editor of 5 books and over 50 book chapters and refereed articles. Gerard was awarded the 2005 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Arts Non-Fiction for his book Disability in Australia (co-authored with Christopher Newell). He is also the Editor of the premier media studies journal Media International Australia (emsah.uq.edu.au/mia/).
Glossary
- Digital Technology
Digital technology uses bits (computer information units such as 1’s and 0’s) to encode information. Unlike analogue signals, digital signals can be accurately regenerated thereby maintaining the quality of the sounds or pictures transmitted. - ISDN - (Integrated Services Digital Network)
ISDN is an international communications standard for sending voice, video, and data over digital telephone lines or normal telephone wires. An ISDN service provides the equivalent of 2 lines which may be used for voice, data or a combination of both. ISDN supports data transfer rates of 2 x 64 Kbps (64,000 bits per second) over a copper cable for a Basic Rate service i.e. 128kbps total. While ISDN is about twice as fast as dial-up service, its use has been largely surpassed by ASDL. - Third Generation (3G)
3G is the third generation of mobile network technologies. The GSM and CDMA networks are classed as second generation while the defunct analogue network was the first of the mobile network generations. Technically there are 3G evolutions of both GSM and CDMA. These are known as 3GSM (or sometimes WCDMA) and 1X EVDO respectively. - SMS messaging - (Short Messaging System)
The text based message service on mobile phones. Also known as “text messages”.