Post Political Times

Mobiles and Culture

Thanks for the comments on listening in to other people’s mobile conversations including the interesting research reference. Continuing this theme my thoughts turned to the way in which there are significant cultural differences in respect of the use of mobile phones.

I am personally of the school of thinking that it is rude to answer a mobile call when anyone else is talking to me. Others have the opposite view – that it is somehow wrong not to answer a call whatever else they are doing.

This varies between age-groups and there are also national variations. The photo below comes from Colombia where I saw some mobile practices I have never seen in the UK.

This shows Colombian President Uribe (left) at a public meeting with the local Governor, army commander and bishop to his right. I was sitting in an audience of several hundred people listening to the President speak about political issues of the day. Part way through the President’s comments, the Bishop’s mobile rang and he pulled it out from his robe and chatted away into it, and this was in no way exceptional.

What the Colombians have perfected is a Push To Talk (PTT) style of speaking that is much less intrusive. You put the phone to your mouth, speak into it with your hand covering mouth and phone then put it to your ear to hear the reply. This means that your voice is almost completely masked and this allows calls to take place almost anywhere without being overheard, including, as I saw, in the Senate chamber during speeches.

I suspect this may reflect actual deployment of PTT technology as well as cultural adaptation but will have to check.

Will we one day see the Archbishop of Canterbury take a call while sat alongside the Prime Minister? And if so, who would he be speaking to?