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9781403960412

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

by
  • ISBN13:

    9781403960412

  • ISBN10:

    1403960410

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2004-04-17
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Press
  • Purchase Benefits
List Price: $37.00

Summary

Although the Internet takes us everywhere in cyberspace, it usually requires us to be seated behind a desk. In contrast, the cellphone lets us walk through the world, fully connected. Cellphone explores the history of mobility in media-from books to cameras to transistor radios to laptops-and examines the unique impact of a device that sits in a pocket or palm, and lets us converse by voice or text. The restricting and liberating edge of accessibility transforms restaurants, public transport, automobiles, romance, literacy, parent-child relationships, war, and indeed all walks of life, trivial and profound. Like an organic cell that moves, evolves, combines with other cells, and generates, the cellphone has become a complex sparkplug of human life.

Author Biography

Paul Levinson's The Soft Edge and Digital McLuhan have been the subject of major articles in The New York Times and WIRED, and his science fiction novel, The Silk Code, won the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Paul has published more than 100 articles on history, philosophy, and the future of communications media. He has appeared on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, the O'Reilly Factor, and dozens of television and radio shows. He is Professor and Chair of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City. His website is www.sff.net/people/paullevinson.

Table of Contents

List of Photographs xi
Preface: The Irresistible Calling xiii
1 The "Miracle-Phone"
1(14)
Trade-Offs
7(2)
Unintended Consequences and Remedial Media
9(2)
Democratic, Darwinian Media
11(4)
2 Information on the Move
15(20)
The Kodak Camera and the Mobile Media Producer
20(2)
Radio on Wheels
22(2)
Laptops and Portable Production
24(5)
Dick Tracy, Captain Kirk, and the Gold Ingot
29(6)
3 World Wide Spiderweb
35(14)
Breaking Down Rooms
38(6)
Spiderwebs and Bird Nests
44(5)
4 The Mobile Hearth
49(14)
Instantly Implemented Imagination
52(5)
The Telepathic Society
57(6)
5 The Drawbacks of Always Being in Touch
63(10)
Consolations for the Hermit
64(2)
Customs of Refusal
66(7)
6 The Social Intruder
73(12)
Cellphone Envy
74(1)
One-Sided Conversations
75(3)
Rings of Discord
78(2)
All the Wrong Places
80(5)
7 Kids on the Hook
85(20)
The Gripping Hand
86(5)
Husbands and Wives on Call
91(4)
Romancing the Phone
95(10)
8 More than a Conversation Piece:
Texting, Texting, 1, 2, 3 ...
105(1)
The Renaissance of Text
106(6)
Silence and Multitasking
112(3)
Libraries with Legs
115(1)
The Smart World
116(5)
9 Leapfrogging Landlines and the Digital Divide
121(14)
Cheap Talk
124(2)
Leapfrogging
126(3)
Cellphonic Passports for Global Travelers
129(6)
10 The Cellphone at War 135(28)
The Cellphonic Journalist
137(3)
Embedded Reporters with Cellphones
140(4)
The Unembedded, Unprotected Journalist
144(4)
Television News Comes into Its Own Due to the Cellphone
148(2)
Cellphone vs. War Slogs
150(4)
Cellphones as Weapons of War: The Cellphonic Fuse
154(6)
Microcosm and Future
160(3)
11 Future Calls 163(18)
Tailoring the Telephone
165(5)
The Eyes Don't Yet Have It
170(6)
Wish List for the Cellphone
176(5)
Select Annotated Bibliography 181(34)
Index 215

Supplemental Materials

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