Hi, visibility is benchmark of
publishing success and this message is part of an aggressive online campaign
for the promotion and visibility of my two books [1] Political Internet and
[2] Intimate Speakers among core reading public in online space.
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benefit these books if they work broadly on anything related to social media,
Internet, society, politics, cyber sexuality, Internet pornography, intimacies,
women and online misogyny, introverts, underprivileged people, Diaspora,
cyberspace, Internet in education, International relations, digital politics,
social media and state, public sphere, civil society, social capital,
contentious politics and so on.
[1]. Political Internet: State and Politics in the Age of
Social Media, (Routledge 2017)
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[2]. Intimate Speakers: Why Introverted and Socially Ostracized
Citizens Use Social Media, (Fingerprint!
2017).
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Biju P R
Author, Teacher, Blogger
Assistant Professor of Political
Science
Government Brennen College
Thalassery
Kerala, India
bijugayu@gmail.com (primary)
1. Political Internet: State and Politics in the Age of Social Media,
(Routledge 2017), Amazon https://www.amazon.in/
2. Intimate Speakers: Why Introverted and Socially Ostracized Citizens Use Social Media, (Fingerprint! 2017)
Amazon: http://www.amazon.in/dp/
Cell phones are
ubiquitous today, present in almost every household in the country. They are
like Infotopia for the political sphere, a hope for women under patriarchal
households, for misogynists, they are an uncensored connective public
space, while for the government they are a cheap service delivery
gateway. They also represent fundamental conflicts of civic life dramatically.
Cell phones represent a sort of pocket activism, where they fill activism in
our pockets and leather straps. Now, we carry life style politics on the go
with this device.
A weird pattern of cell
phone usage represents civic and political involvement mirroring a new public.
Despite being at its budding stage, our pockets or leather bags have begun to
surface like public spaces when they cover up a cell phone! Now, the keypad and
touchpad, in significant ways cope up to engage in a wide array of citizen
advocacy. The significance of cell phones in reconfiguring a mediated political
public is vividly reflective in the news, pessimistic or optimistic, pertaining
to mobiles phones from various parts of India.
Being smart is tempting
and in politics, it is in fact romantic. Smart car, smart phone to SMART
governance, smart is quite appealing to an entire bunch of audience. Yet, apart
from being a Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent government,
smart is meaningful for politics, protest, advocacy also. So is the smart phone
for our age!
When we think about
smart phones, we should also think about their implications for politics. Cell
phones have introduced a new way of configuring democratic engagement and
participatory politics. A loose network of amorphous political public takes
shape via the tiny devices in our pockets or leather straps.
Cell phone users in
India are around one quarter of the total wired public of the world, says a
study by global telecom body Global System Mobile Association (GSMA). Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India and Nielsen, a research firm, in 2012 reported
over 900 million mobile phone subscriptions in India. With cell phone
subscriptions exceeding a population of 900 million and cell phones
reaching every doorstep, it will be no exaggeration to think of mobile phones
as the next PC of India. Holding a great potential of facilitating access,
quick delivery, easy networking, low cost, quick interactivity ensures that no
alternative can compete against cell phones in achieving a new kind of
governance.
A Survey by Nielsen
releases that Indians are increasingly taking to smart phones and with almost
half of the users younger than 25. One-third of the YouTube viewers, nearly 30
percent, access videos through their mobiles and spend over fifty hours a month
on the Website. The dramatic growth in the usage of smart phone has been driven
by a desire among users to stay connected and have instant access to social
networking sites.
Mobile device is a
fascination among youth and more importantly, it filters in to the lives of
citizens regardless of age, gender and how much economical, cultural, social,
symbolic and intellectual capital one holds. These designate mobile devices
wholly eligible for discussion of public sphere.
Pocket
Politics
However, let us think
of a ‘pocket activism’ here, which is a budding portable both men and
women carry either in pockets or in leather bags. Wherever we move, this
amorphous political public is portable with us. It was this phenomenon that
made Ling and Yttri (2001) think of ‘hyper-coordination’ and Howard
Rheingold (2002) think of ‘smart mobs’. The 25th February 2012 to 2nd
March 2012 weekly Gazette of India notification titled Framework for Mobile
Governance confirms a new approach of the government to enable something like
‘smart mob’.
Many State governments
in India are trying to implement m-governance service delivery gateway to
citizens. The website of Kerala IT mission says there are
twenty-five service delivery programs under M–governance gate way. An
M-governance activity in Kerala IT Mission has claimed the praise of World Bank
as one of the best practices in the world, says a post on UNDP website .The services
of Mobile Internet companies such as MOBME, which provide
end-user m-governance solutions to governments and brands are much hopeful
since markets are becoming more committed to social engineering.
In
fact, the decision of Election Commission (EC) of India to advance from the
2009 election practice of COMET to a coded SMS-based alert system to supervise
the 2014 national election has stimulated the hope of M-democracy movement.
Moreover, in the Northeast area of India, EC has provided facilities on its
website for voters to identify their polling booth, route and other relevant
information on the go and this can be accessible via smart phone we have.
At
this moment, it is time to scream that cell phone public of India seemingly cut
across a range of social science variables; caste, class, gender, region and
ensure mobility across social layers that were otherwise not possible. From fish markets to skyscrapers, cell phones
have begun to affect lives in an unusual way. M-governance to M-market and
M-politics to M-health, plethora of mobile affiliated rich terminologies have
already become part of our routine cultural vocabulary.
Cell
phones bring about greater political significance and social value and
this illustrated the magnitude to which cell phones have rekindled a
public space in India that has been used to create a pocket activism analogy.
As the debate between participatory vs. representative democracy intensifies,
cell phones will have winning arguments supplementing participatory politics.
Cell
phones have been deployed by civil society groups, NGOs, contentious groups,
professional agencies and networks to avail funds from public. Micro-donations
of Rs. 10 to 50 to political parties have been made with just an SMS, which can
possibly revolutionise election funding in India. Greenpeace makes use of
mobile phones to request its supporters for donation from Rs 500/- onwards.
Major
Indian political parties are by now making widespread use of the social
networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc and are indulging in
online brand advertising by launching Nokia, Android, iPhone and Blackberry
applications to win the hearts of the younger cohort. As reported by media, the
UPA Government had plans for a Rs.7000 crore scheme; “A Phone in Every Hand” to
give one Mobile Phone
to every family living below the poverty line (BPL Family) with free calls.
What
ever be the electoral gimmicks, there are many studies that report there is a
close relation between mobile penetration and socio-economic growth.Telenor
in Norway commissioned Deloitte to study the mobile and economic growth
correlation in six markets: Malaysia, Thailand, Ukraine, Pakistan, Serbia and
Bangladesh (Deloitte 2008). It has found that Mobile phones provide the ability
to communicate to those sectors of the community typically under served by
fixed line technology. It also enhances social inclusion by leaving a positive
impact on economic welfare through an increase in GDP and by generating
employment opportunities in both the mobile communications sector and the wider
economy.
Cell
phones and social structure
The
power to bring about changes to the lives of women began to challenge the
patriarchal mindset associated with community institutions in north Indian
countryside. The patriarchy is afraid of women getting jobs, earning money and,
in many cases doing better than men. They are
afraid of India’s other quiet revolution: the women’s revolution. Cell phone is
a supplement to the silent upheaval of women power breaking social structure
and barriers to mobility.The reach and effect of cell phone has
stabbed the social structure and stigmatised social order. This has reflected
in the way the “community institutions” in India deal with Cell phones for
instances; some rural areas of North India like Siwan, Sunderwadi, Dausa
and Anjuman remain the fortress of ‘Talibanising’ cell phones giving it a
gender dimension.
Importantly,
the potential of mobile phones is not merely confined only to m-governance in
the political realm. In fact, it grows up to reconfigure m-politics,
m-advocacy, m-protest, m-campaign, m-funding, m-civil society, m-public sphere,
m-capital, m-education and many more.In the land of cobblers, ‘sadhus’ and
snake charmers, cell phone is a sacred device. It adds many dimensions to the
lives of women, sexual minorities, caste groups, dalit, tribe and other
marginal sections.Among many marginal sections, this device has enormous
significance. For the fishermen community, it is a device to connect with
traders in the mainland to bargain on their catch from the sea itself. For girl
students, it is a favourite device while commuting the misogynistic terrain
appearing in between educational institutions and home.For women, in unsafe
metros like Delhi, where going to public places is life risking, mobile
platforms like Fight
Back app and Circle 6 offer
a new way of security in a violent zone. It is inevitable that technology is
becoming gender sensitized. New technologies are becoming necessary for
battling sexism and violence against women.
Yet, it
is clear that this tiny device has crossed over the hurdles of patriarchy,
taboos, social stigmas and rigid social structure that reduce our social
mobility.
From the patriarchal household to the open country, many rooms appear that offer hope, and surely, cell phones are one among the many providers that will lighten our new future! The cyberpunks of contemporary digital India have already been born in pockets and leather straps, and are on the go! They, of course, resurface in cell phones.
From the patriarchal household to the open country, many rooms appear that offer hope, and surely, cell phones are one among the many providers that will lighten our new future! The cyberpunks of contemporary digital India have already been born in pockets and leather straps, and are on the go! They, of course, resurface in cell phones.
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