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| iPhone 6 |
In selecting my cultural artifact, I began with an object so
ingrained in our everyday lives it seems to have become an extension of our
very bodies. The iPhone. What are some contemporary and personal meanings encoded in this object? A
connection to everything needed throughout the day. For me, it is my husband,
my school-aged child, my sister, my mother, my students, my calendar, the News,
my interests, my momentary musings. This device is my repository of pictures, videos,
contacts, data, budgets, most frequented online shopping spots, ideas, and
music. It is my navigation system both physically and emotionally. The iPhone
has become an extension of my person, my hand, my fingers. I turn to it during
my leisure time, down time. It serves as a welcome distraction, an escape. I
never leave home without it.
Smart phones, particularly the iPhone, represent
connectivity. These devices break down the barriers of time and space, language
and culture. iPhones speak a global language and open the lines of communication
and exploration between groups that otherwise would remain isolated. While they
come in a beautiful slick non-gendered package, each owner seeks to express
herself by personalizing the exterior and interior with skins, protective
cases, wallpapers, screens, apps and keyboards.
iPhones are so embedded in our culture that imagining life
without them is as foreign as looking to the Encyclopedia Britannica as the
primary source of information on any given topic. Although, my personal
investigations started with the iPhone, I chose an older, but related, artifact
to continue my discussion.
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| This rotary phone is an old version with the "guts" removed for my children's use. |
The rotary phone. This image of an “antique” phone (as one
of my high school students described it) represents a simplified idea of how a
phone functions today. It marks a moment in the technological evolution of the
telephone. It is neither the beginning nor the end, but rather somewhere in
between. At the time of its popularity, this object was used to communicate,
personally and professionally with people in close proximity,
cross-continentally, or internationally.
The year 1919 marked the
beginning of the rotary phone era. After WWII, Henry Dreyfuss created the shape
in the image above that would dominate the visual form of the rotary form for
most of its lifetime. Rotary phones (and phones in general) initially appeared
only in the homes of the wealthy and installation of one into the home was a
sign of status. As their popularity spread, cities and suburbs began to
see phones in homes. Rural areas were often excluded due to a
lack of infrastructure. In the beginning, phones all shared a similar appearance to the original black model. However, as phones became more accessible, the styles became more individualized. Such an
example is the princess phone that was popular among women.
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| This is an image depicting a "French Phone" like the one my grandmother gave me as a teenager. This image is part of my personal experience with the rotary phone and part of my reason for selecting this image. |
Unfortunately, the 1960s mark the beginning of the end for rotary phones as they were slowly replaced by newer touch-tone technology (Roberts). However, these phones can still be found in homes of "hold outs" today (my grandparents included).
The subjects asked to respond to this image were forced to
look back at their own memories or the memories of others in order to interpret
the meaning of the object. I asked eleven people to respond to the images, 5
male and 6 female, ranging in age from 18 to 72 of mixed socioeconomic
backgrounds, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. The responses gathered from
this exercise illustrate how “meanings of objects are derived from a continuum
of memories” (Boyd, Amburgy, and Knight, 2007 p 20) and support the idea that
“memory is never objective and fixed; rather it is subjective and fluid” (Boyd,
Amburgy, and Knight, 2007 p. 20). One respondent, a 29 year old Vietnamese
woman, replied “I associate communication, advancement, connectedness,
relationship and help with this image. I also associate a period of time with
it that seems a little more simple and probably a little magical because we weren’t part of it.” She credited her “personal
interaction with phones, history class, [her] background and classes in
communication studies, museums, books and personal observation and reflection”
as the sources for such a statement. Her “magical” experience was evoked by
movies, readings about the periods in which this older technology was popular
and a general since of “wonder and curiosity” for things of old. Several of those I asked recalled seeing these types of phones used as props in period piece movies and television shows. One women noted the sexuality found in a beautifully manicured hand dialing on a rotary phone from a popular television show.
One older gentleman reflected on moments of “sitting and talking, devoting time to speaking with another…in kitchen nooks.” Another recalled it as his primary connection to his distant grandmother and noted the large amount of time spent in conversation with her on such a phone.The women in these memories are 1950s housewives, pictures of domesticity with the latest technology dangling from their ear. These memories evoke an image of white middle class American women gossiping away on their phones.
The sense of nostalgia and familiarity this object evokes is telling of both the primary user of the phone as well as the marketing of the telephone at this time to women in the home. Of course, the phone was transformative for businesses as it increased the numbers of persons that could be accessed on any given day. However, the most widely associated person (from an image search and those I showed the image to) is the housewife, mother, grandmother, a female figure. Memories from my own childhood include my mother talking on the phone "for hours."
However, the domestic housewife was not (and is not) the only subject of these images. My search revealed working class women and even pin-ups talking on these phones. In her article "Shaping the American Women: Feminism and Advertising in the 1950s," Christina Catalona calls attention to a group of feminists that identify "the 1950s as the pinnacle of gender inequality"(Catalona 2002, 45) claiming that "mass media especially advertising in women's magazines, perpetuated the denigration of women" (Catalona 45). While women in this era are portrayed in a variety of other occupations, the primary usage for the phone image appears to be the home and the switchboard or secretarial position. However, in both, women are presented as prim and proper objects of beauty to be looked upon and appreciated for their aesthetics.
A younger female noted the irony of this image as she confessed to feeling connected to this phone with a cord whose purpose was to remain stationary. She states “I felt more freedom when I used a phone like this than my fancy smart phone that remains with me wherever I go.” Pondering this image, she journeyed back to a “time when I used to run around the lawn in a t-shirt and no shoes playing in the mud and getting dirty. We didn’t watch TV or play video games. We played outside and hunted for lost treasure in the creek behind my parents’ house. We didn’t worry about what so and so said about us to hurt our feelings or whether they were our friend on facebook. We had each other that’s what mattered most.” Her connection to these images are not necessarily gendered but rather class related. Growing up in a poor rural area, these memories of a time gone by are ideals. They are memories shaped by what she knows today and what she thinks she remembers about yesterday. A time when she was too young recognize class divides. Or that the phone in her home was not the newest technology.
A male subject, age 30, reminisced of using “one at my
grandmother’s house as a child” and noted “the competence it takes to use one
would probably be lost on current children.” Searching for current readings of this image and illustrations of the
out-dated technology, I uncovered an interaction between children of varying
ages, gender and ethnicities interacting with a rotary phone. What is revealed
is both amusing and indicative of the culturally obsolete quality of the
device as well as a dying telephone jargon.
Another male also associated the image with his grandparents as “they were the only ones to have this still in their home and in use” even today. His response was that the technology was “outdated” just as grandparents are often considered “outdated members of society.”
One respondent noted the “form signifies its function” or lack there of as he mused on the roles that phones play in our lives today. Phones today are our connections with the world. They are keep us connected with our friends, family, activities, and information. Phones allow us to know and understand the world around us on a global level.
Just in case you did not already know, here is a "how to" for the telephone...not to be confused with a cellphone....
Resources:
Catalano, Christina (2002) "Shaping the American Woman: Feminism and Advertising in the 1950s," Constructing the Past: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 6.
Martin, D. (1994, January 10). Rotary Pay Phones Return,
This Time to Foil Drug Deals. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/10/nyregion/rotary-pay-phones-return-this-time-to-foil-drug-deals.html
Roberts, William Lee. “Western Electric A look at the evolution of the Dial Telephone.”
http://www.arctos.com/dial/
Rotary phones ring true for few. (n.d.). Sacramento
Business Journal. Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2001/03/12/focus3.html
This Attention Deficit World: Frantic, Free, and Out of
Control. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://www.enotalone.com/health/5651.html
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