Tools and life experiences

What is the problem to which th emobile phone is a solution? Such is a question that Neil Postman would ask. What is the cost/benefit ratio of the mobile phone innovation? Are we better off with mobile phones? Such are the questions that Gordon Graham would ask. Has the mobile phone altered human communication in any significant way? This would have been Chrisanthi Avgerou's question.

All the above imply a conception of the mobile phone as tool. As the pen is a tool for writing and the axe is a tool for cutting wood, computers, the internet and the mobile phone are often conceived as tools. Of course, once conceived as tools, one has to ask what utilitarial purpose they serve and how good they are at it. And if you set this instrumental benchmark for the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, they suddenly appear as though they do not serve any well defined problem. Instead they appear as though they are technical achievements for their own sake; they look like technical solutions looking for a problem.

The car is a tool for transporting people and materials from A to B. Is it? To some extent, perhaps. Overall, however, the car is a way of living, a way of relating, a way for showing off, a way of seeking solitude or companionship, a way of expressing feelings through one's driving attitude. The car (or, better, automobility) is a modality of life. John Urry might have argued something of this sort. Others too.

Similarly, the mobile phone is far more than a tool. It defines a social space in which we create novel life experiences.