Cell phone culture: How cultural differences affect mobile use

By Naomi Canton for CNN

September 28, 2012
CNN.com

Mobile phones have become an essential part of our everyday life. Through a special month-
long series, “Our Mobile Society”, we examine how phones and tablets are changing the way we
live.

It is a device that three quarters of the world’s inhabitants have access to, according to the World
Bank, but the words to describe it and etiquette of how to use it differ starkly across cultures.

In the UK, it is called a mobile, in the US cell phone, in Latin America cellar, in Japan
keitai (portable), in China shou-ji (hand machine), in Bangladesh muthopone (phone in the palm
of your hand), in Sweden nalle (teddy bear), in Israel Pelephone (wonder phone) and in Germany
a handy.
In Japan, train commuters receive a barrage of recorded announcements telling them to
switch off their mobiles to silent or vibrate, referred to as “manner mode”. Using a mobile in
public is frowned upon in a land where collective needs are put above the individual’s.
‘Japanese culture highly values social harmony and social disturbance is heavily
sanctioned,” explains Satomi Sugiyama, associate professor at Franklin College.
“If someone tries to board a bus while taking a call, the driver will not let them on,” adds
cultural anthropologist Mizuko Ito. “In Japan your phone shouldn’t be a nuisance to others,” she
says. “This means generally keeping it on manner mode when out of the house, and not taking
calls in cafes and restaurants. If somebody’s phone rings, they will be flustered and silence it or
take a very quick call,” Ito explains.
The density of urban spaces, the high use of public transportation, and the relative lack of
privacy in homes contribute to ways of communicating that don’t impose on others, she explains.
Texting, mobile email, games and novels are more popular than voice calls among the
Japanese.
In Spain and Italy, in contrast, mobiles are used everywhere and people are not averse to
discussing their personal lives in public. Renfe, the state-owned train operating company in
Spain, once promoted its journeys on a poster depicting conversations people can have with their
partners on cell phones from the train.
The Spanish, like the Italians, happily answer calls in restaurants, during business
meetings, conferences and even sometimes during concerts. Discreetly texting or instant
messaging under the table during meeting is also commonplace, Amparo Lasen, professor of
sociology at the University Complutense de Madrid, says.
Spanish people have always discussed their private lives in the streets, so doing so on
mobile is just an evolution of that. “Sometimes Spanish people leave movie theaters just to check
what is happening on their phone,” Lasen says.
“You have an obligation to be available to close friends, colleagues and customers. There
is an obligation of accountability,” she adds.
However, it is not the Spaniards but the Finns who are the chattiest on their mobiles in
Europe, clocking up on average of 257 minutes a month, according to GSMA’s European Mobile
Observatory 2011.
Then again, it is the homeland of Nokia. Austrians follow closely behind the Finns at 240
minutes of use, while the Maltese spend the least time talking – an average of 46 minutes per
month.
In parts of India and Africa, there is also a culture of split-second calls known as
“flashing” or “beeping”. Jonathan Donner, a researcher at Miscrosoft India who published a
paper on “The Rules of Beeping”, said: “Beeping is simple: A person calls a mobile telephone
number and then hangs up before the mobile’s owner can pick up the call.”
The mobile owner can then phone them back, thus picking up the tab for the call.
Donner first came across “beeping” in Rwanda and tracked its use across Africa. He said
the practice has many different meanings from “Come and pick me up”, to “Hi”, to “I’m thinking
of you” to “Call me back.”
As blogger Shashank Bengali writes: “There are unwritten but deeply observed rules for
flashing. When your mechanic wants to tell you your car is ready, for example, he can flash you
– it’s your car, after all, and if you want it back, you’d better call him. It’s also hierarchal: an
employee calling a superior, who makes more money, is justified in flashing – unless he really
needs a favor.” He sounds a note of warning, though: “If you’re trying to woo a lady, don’t flash
her. Ever.”
In India it is common for people to take calls inside a movie theater. People don’t know if
the call is important so they pick up, Umang Shah, of PhiMetrics, a telecom audit and consulting
firm in India, says. Like in Spain, few Indians have or use voicemail, he added.
Another quirk about India is that the caller may get to hear a Bollywood song, chosen by
the subscriber instead of a ringing tone. Known as caller tunes, the subscriber is charged for this
monthly and according to Shah, they are a big money-spinner. This is also common in parts of
Africa where a caller might hear a quote from the Bible.
In both continents, it is also common for people to take calls inside a movie theater.
“Even at highly official functions, during speeches and so on, people in India take the call,”
Kadira Pethiyagoda, visiting doctoral student at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, says.
“Indian society has a long tradition of tolerance, including in terms of allowing others to
infringe on what those in the West would consider one’s personal space,” he says. This is why
phone use in cinemas and crowded trains is tolerated, he adds. “Indian society is also more
communal than the West which, in part, leads to an increased importance of constantly staying in
touch,” he adds.
“People pick up their phones everywhere in Africa. The only places they don’t are the
mosque or the church,” Abdullahi Arabo, BT research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute,
explains.
“Part of it is showing off that they have the device and if the call is from far away they
like to show it’s an international call.”
In Japanese movie halls, on the contrary, 45-year-old Tokyo housewife Kanako
Shibamoto says “we are not allowed to even put phones into silent mode because the light of the
screen might make other people annoyed.”
Mobile manufacturers have also created double sim card handsets for the emerging
markets so they can simultaneously benefit from the best data and voice deals. In general,
Indians chat for an average of 346 minutes a month, benefiting from extremely low rates of 0.5
rupee (less than half a cent) a minute. Multiple sim ownership is common across Asia, Africa and
Latin America.
In Africa, it is because most of the service providers are unreliable and they can’t get a
signal, Arabo says.
In the US, a Synovate market research poll found that 72 per cent of Americans
considered loud conversations in public places to be the worst habits of cell phone users. Now
the new gripe appears to be iPhone 4S users repeating simple questions to Apple’s Siri, a robotic
assistant.
“People seem to be accepting of phone calls but not of people talking to a disembodied
voice on their phone,” says Jane Vincent, visiting fellow at the Digital World Research Centre,
University of Surrey.
Texting was initially slow to take off in America, because “differing networks did not
work well together in the early days of mobile communication causing dysfunctional text
messaging across networks,” says Scott Campbell, professor of telecommunications at the
University of Michigan. “Texting is now as big in America as everywhere,” he says.
Campbell also said mobile internet has been slow on the uptake there as digital media
tablets are becoming popular ways of going online. “They have a larger screen and better
interface than mobile.”