Project Research

When developing a photographic essay, it isn't enough to just come up with an idea and a topic you like and randomly start shooting! One of the main parts of developing a strong photographic project is the research you do on your topic to give your project a meaning and support it with academic research from different scholars. 

As for my topic, I first thought that it might be difficult to find a lot of academic material to support my ideas, because the issue of hyper-connectivity and social isolation caused by mobile phones is a pretty recent problem that has only started to appear with the rising development of new technologies. 

But, as I started looking online and scrolling through the Sussex library website, I realized that my concerns were completely unnecessary because it turned out that even though I'm presenting a very 'modern' problem in my project, there are a number of different scholars that have analysed the issue in depth. 

The use of mobile phones in our everyday life has become so ubiquitous that we sometimes don't even notice anymore when we take out our phones to check on social networks or send a text. 

Another interesting point I stumbled upon while reading through Michael Bull's articles about mobile spaces of sound, was the fact that he refers to bubbles when talking about the private space we create for ourselves when listening to music or being on our phones. 

I think that this is a very visual term that probably best describes the way we live with our phones. We live in our own bubbles, which is designated only for ourselves and thus those that are around us have no possibility of entering our bubble and probably create their own. In the 21st century, we actually live in a world full of those bubbles, of people all living in their very own world. 

I think that although these facts seem normal nowadays, one should nevertheless draw more attention to the growing isolation and loneliness that is created by our mobile phones. 

Nevertheless, phones are often seen as a useful device to keep in touch with friends and family that we can't see everyday for whatever reason. But what we don't realize is that, while trying to stay in touch with those that are far away, we often distance ourselves a lot from those closest to us, and this is also what Watson and Atuick (2015) talk about in their case study about the cell phone use among Bulsa of Ghana's Upper East region, when they say that: ''While cell phones help users connect with distant loved ones, they also plant seeds of alienation between users and those who remain physically present.'' 

Thus the space that we live in and that we could socialize and have face-to-face contact with other people becomes less important to us, meaning that 'speakers 'absent' themselves from the spaces they inhabit. In a world where most of us are talking to  'absent others' the street becomes a potentially lonelier place'. ( Bull, 2004).

This is exactly what I want to show in my pictures. I want people to not only see but also feel the alienation, isolation and loneliness that each and every phone user creates by constantly giving in to the need of being connected and online. 

In her book Turkle (2013) argues that: ''Our networked life allows us to hide from each other, even as we are tethered to each other''. The 'networked life' as a bubble or cocoon allows us to distance ourselves from each other, even when we're in the same room. 

And I guess that also the fact that so many scholars have already done a remarkable amount of research about this particular topic shows that it is something that we definitely have to become aware of and have an eye on in the future because this hyper-connectivity and the excessive phone use are things that could become really important issues in the next few years, especially in relation to interpersonal communication and social behaviour, but also in relation to our own identity. 

Reading: 
Robert, James A. ;Pullig, Chris ;Manolis Chris - I need my smartphone: A hierarchical model of personality and cell-phone addiction 

Watson, D. Marcus & Atuick, A. Evans - Cell Phones and Alienation among Bulsa of Ghana's Upper East Region: ''The Call Calls You Away 

Michael Bull - ''To each their own bubble'': mobile spaces of sound in the city

Sherry Turkle - Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology And Less From Each Other