23/04: Are Mobile Phones the next Cigarette Lighter?
While many of you read about the American Airlines flight cancellations, I had the distinct pleasure of living it while connecting through DFW. Once I was able to get another flight established a few hours later, I was able to relax at the airport.
Airports are great places to people watch. During Grad School, I took a number of anthropology courses as a way to better understand how people live. This has proven extremely helpful during I found myself a seat at an airport pub, ordered a Makers and Coke and began my people watching. Drawing on my Anthropology classes, I like to try and build a story around the people and their situation. Occasionally, I’ll even get to talk to the person to validate (or invalidate) my conclusions.
One thing I noticed was how many people were on their phones. But they weren't talking on their phones, instead these people were checking email, texting, playing games and surfing the web. All valid tasks, but none involving the core purpose of a phone, which is to make and receive calls.
On my ride home, I plugged in my cell phone charger and started thinking about just how similar the phone and lighter were. My car is full of cigarette lighters, labelled as ‘power ports’. Their shape is defined by the legacy of the push lighter that every car had. That legacy form factor continues to this day, even though I would imagine that few are used for lighting cigarettes. In fact, my car doesn’t even have an ashtray!
Airports are great places to people watch. During Grad School, I took a number of anthropology courses as a way to better understand how people live. This has proven extremely helpful during I found myself a seat at an airport pub, ordered a Makers and Coke and began my people watching. Drawing on my Anthropology classes, I like to try and build a story around the people and their situation. Occasionally, I’ll even get to talk to the person to validate (or invalidate) my conclusions.
One thing I noticed was how many people were on their phones. But they weren't talking on their phones, instead these people were checking email, texting, playing games and surfing the web. All valid tasks, but none involving the core purpose of a phone, which is to make and receive calls.
On my ride home, I plugged in my cell phone charger and started thinking about just how similar the phone and lighter were. My car is full of cigarette lighters, labelled as ‘power ports’. Their shape is defined by the legacy of the push lighter that every car had. That legacy form factor continues to this day, even though I would imagine that few are used for lighting cigarettes. In fact, my car doesn’t even have an ashtray!
