Cellphone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium and How It Has Transformed Everything (review)

Cellphone is a small book for general audiences that summarizes many of the obvious social and cultural impacts of the hand-held appliance known as the mobile phone. Compact enough to fit in a pocket, able to connect two friends in conversation across continents, it can supply a "mobile hearth" of information, and bring together anyone, anytime, anywhere. According to Paul Levinson, since its first appearance in 1973 this gadget has enabled us to do "more of what we want to do, be it business or pleasure, pursuit of knowledge, details, companionship, love . . . much faster and more easily than any time in the past" (p. 60). As a result, it has had and will continue to have an enormous impact on society and culture.

What one may gain by reading Cellphone is an overview of various impacts—mostly as a result of mobility—on person-to-person communication, information accessibility, social settings, the family, media, and writing, now and in the future. To this end, Levinson compares previous technological innovations such as the Kodak camera, transistor radio, telephone, television, printed book, personal computer, and internet. His interest is in how the cell phone will push forward what many of these other technologies began. But the cell phone's social impact is not simply that it will allow users to communicate and look for information anytime and anywhere. It also allows users to be called anytime and anywhere. These appliances thus impose on public settings by disrupting the ordinary serenity with omnipresent, audible conversations.

Despite these unintended negative consequences, Levinson argues that the cell phone is good for society, and that its services are proliferating worldwide because of the human proclivity to communicate and to access information. The omnipresence of cell phones displaces people out of the home or office and "makes the physical environment itself—sunshine, trees, sidewalks, summer breeze, snow flurries—more accessible" (p. 119). Even though users make themselves vulnerable to being called at unwanted times or places, Levinson suggests that cell-phone mobility is good because "when you add to this natural desire to talk to people far away, not only wherever they are, but wherever we are, you arrive, almost inevitably, at the cellphone: the ability to talk and walk at the same time, regardless of where we are walking and regardless of where the person we are talking to is walking" (pp. 15–16). Levinson also argues that the cell phone "extends and strengthens the sinews of family" (p. 89). It further infiltrates the world of media, making the world smarter, insofar as it enables users to communicate anywhere, receive information (in the form of news, books, radio updates, etc.), and produce information (in the form of photographs, text-messaging, etc.).

"Texting" is often criticized because it truncates words. However, for Levinson "short messaging on cellphones and computer screens represents a resurgence of the alphabet over the Mac and Windows icon," and texting writers and readers "are as literate as you and I. Indeed, maybe more so . . . since 'texters' are creating a slightly new form of writing" (p. 111).

Clearly, the cell phone has inspired the creation of new communication modes. Although much of Levinson's assessment seems purely observational, one must appreciate his attempt to explore the many ways that cell phones have favorably impacted numerous aspects of our lives and transformed culture. Still, is his account of this device's noteworthy impact sufficient? Yes, if you are seeking an entertaining, straightforward read. It should be emphasized, however, that Cellphone lacks comprehensive evidence, aside from Levinson's repeated insinuation that the cellphone is good, because users are now able to communicate, seek information, and be accessible anywhere and anytime.