This week, I read ‘Migrant mothering and mobile phones: Negotiations of transnational identity” by Arul Chib, Shelly Malik, Rajiv George Aricat, and Siti Zubeidah Kadir. The article investigated the role of mobile phones via voice, text messages, and social networking sites, in dealing with the tensions arising from transnational mothers. The article talked a lot about dialect issues that arise from this but I didn’t really understand the article so I will provide my analysis and reaction below.
This was not my favorite article that I have read in this class and I found it quite interesting that someone even decided to do a study on the topic. I think that this class and the articles provided by it are pushing a narrative about mobile media that is simply one-sided and naïve. To imply that people don’t already know the impacts of mobile media on our society is simply dull. I would argue that most people are hyperaware of how media affects their life. There is not a single person, for example, who would deny the toxicity of social media.
I think that not enough credit is given to the public in this course. Every article I have read is about negatives… How Tinder has affected dating, how mobile phones affect migrant mothers, etc. How about we read about the revolutionary technologies that our generations are lucky enough to navigate? Regardless of the negative effects that mobile media have on our current society, I would way rather choose living today than in the 1950’s when women were all depressed housewives or in the prehistoric times when you had to dig a hole if you wanted go to the bathroom. Every era has their flaws and if mobile media is ours, then so be it.
I feel incredibly lucky to have mobile media integrated into my learning curriculum. I have not met one single millennial or older aged individual that is not envious of the fact that high schoolers nowadays are provided laptops by their school districts. Obviously, there are people that cannot handle the presence of mobile media, including but not limited to social media, phones, streaming, video games, but those people are not a reflection of all of society. Those people likely have different issues that should be addressed through some form of self-reflection or intervention.
All I can say is there are rural societies in less developed countries that have to walk miles to even access drinkable water and we are sitting in this class complaining about how bad phones are. Think about how effective it would be to funnel this energy and activism into a humanitarian issue that is crippling societies around the world. I think it is incredibly important to highlight our privilege that we even have access to mobile media and if anyone is so anti-mobile media then I am sure they can go find an off-grid society in which there is no service or connection. It is important to keep the negatives in mind regarding mobile media but it is also incredibly important to not dramatize our first world problems.
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