By: Carter Cox
The article I read this week, titled “Mobility and the mobile: A study of adolescent migrants and their use of the mobile phone”, dealt with the influence of digital media in day-to-day life for adolescents. However, as pointed out in the article title, these studies targeted a specific portion of adolescents – migrants. For such a young and impressionable audience, prolonged exposure to digital media can have serious ramifications for thinking and behaviors.
To provide some background, the article first defines how these adolescents are using mobile technology. Through this technology, specifically mobile phones, adolescents have unlimited access to a device that can navigate the Internet, take digital photos, and maintain constant contact with friends and family. The social and cultural impacts of mobile media can truly be seen when adolescent migrants are displaced from their families or homes. Essentially, they are navigating through new environments through a completely digital lens. Digital media serves as personal interpreter for young migrants as they figure out new locations. In most cases, migrants are crossing international borders without the presence of adults. When in new countries, a mobile phone satisfies a migrant’s need for social interaction and integration.
Another interesting argument this article brought up was the strong connection between digital media and a migrant’s identity. The article explained how most migrants are housed in juvenile residential centers when transitioning between countries. In these centers, they never truly had a private space. In most cases, migrants shared rooms with multiple people. While living in juvenile centers, their rooms were also subject to inspection at any given time. These living conditions heavily contributed to a strong attachment to mobile phones and digital media. The following quote was taken from the article:
“In our case, to enhance this sense of privacy … they tend to adopt a particular physical disposition, which suggests an attempt to isolate themselves from others and create their own space, becoming almost invisible within the daily life at the centre.”
Mobile phones hold all of our personal information – photos, videos, songs, text conversations, to name a few. In the case of adolescent migrants who never have their own private space to call home, a lot of their emotional identity is directly tied to their phone.
This article raises a few follow-up questions. What happens when we lose access to our digital identity? Where do we draw the line between reality and virtual reality? Do digital memories have less emotional weight than those in our brain, and what is the difference anyway? The power of modern technology surely has its benefits, but the consequences are still yet to be fully seen.
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