Each day on the commute between home and office, I enjoy a measure of satisfaction at the complaints from some fellow commuters as our train enters a half-kilometer long tunnel and their mobile telephone, SMS, and social media conversations all drop out. In this book, Ling explores the changes that mobile communications have wrought on our society and how we simply take ever-present mobile technologies for granted.
The first two chapters are a general discussion on how the technologies that support social interaction have become ubiquitous. The author includes topics such as critical mass and the social ideology needed to support the phenomenon.
Chapter 3 recounts the history of the impact of timekeeping on our lives. The story moves from agricultural time based on the position of the sun, through medieval timekeeping, to the obsession of most modern businesspeople with their wristwatches and meeting organizers. Chapter 4 explores the historical impact of the car on society. These two chapters set the background for the main theme by illustrating the significant social impact of two “historical” technologies.
The author then moves on to the impact of mobile technology on society. Chapters 5 through 8 discuss how mobile communications, and mobile telephony in particular, have become embedded in modern society. Significant use is made throughout of interviews, analyses, and the earlier works of others.
Chapter 9 brings the clock, the car, and the mobile phone together in a concise summary of the synergistic impact of these technologies on our society. The book concludes with detailed supporting notes grouped by chapter, an extensive collection of references, and an adequate index.
The book makes for interesting reading, and its main tenet, that mobile phones have become invisible, seems borne out in everyday experience. It is a reminder of just how integrated and ubiquitous mobile communications have become in our society and how difficult it would be (like any addiction) if we were ever faced with giving them up “cold turkey.” It makes one wonder about the potential impact on society of the next huge solar flare (remember Quebec in March of 1989).