Assignment 1-4: Weekly Written Analysis 1

Almost every one today has a cellular phone. But the question here is not having a phone in hand but rather what kind of phone they have. For this weekly journal, I m going to focus on analyzing why people try to acquire the fanciest and most loaded technological phone in the market and how does it transform their private and public life.

I m going to start this analysis with a small story of my eleven years old niece. Since two years ago, my niece has made it public to the entire family that she needs help getting a phone. I was curious, and I wanted to found out the story behind her necessity. She told me that all her friends have one and that was the only way for her to keep in touch with her friends at school. But she added that the phone must be a camera and MP3. She just remind me on my time in high school when emails and IMs was the most popular technology for all students to look cool.

The story of my niece is a reflection of all teenagers in the American society and ironically adults as well. It becomes a trend that all adults in our society must buy a smart phone with texting, messaging, emailing, and internet capabilities. From chapter five of Common Culture, the authors have mentioned “personal culture” as the new term to describe individuals taking their customized culture no matter where they go.
Moreover, concurrence between Telecommunication companies to release the top of the line smart phone is highly appreciated by customers. AT&T for example was able to secure the exclusive iphone deal from Apple and therefore has achieved a major lead in the race with all of its competitors.

Imagine the life of any one without his/her personal culture (cellular phone). It would be very difficult for a lot of people to walk without a phone that hold their contact number, organize their appointment, facilitate their online queries, help entertain their brains, share their video or photo memories, and communicate their daily blogs or minutes twiter.

Reference:

Petracca, M & Sorapure, M. (2007). Common Culture: Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture. (5th ed.). University of California at Santa Barbara. New Jersy, NJ: Pearson.