Smartphones, Mobility, Waiting and Domesticity – Core Post, Josh Foley

I write this post from a point of reflection on three things: I never watch television on a television, let alone when I’m in a waiting room; I have never driven on the freeway in Los Angeles; and I haven’t been to a mall in at least five years. Of course, I am well aware that other people do these things. Yet, it seems to clear to me, perhaps even too obvious to warrant stating, that technology has changed substantially since the three articles for this week were published. With that in mind, I want to begin thinking through how the ideas produced in these articles, particularly nonspace, deadness or waiting, and the domestic as front-line, have all shifted in the wake of technological “advancement.” Because I find that technology is always indebted to its former selves, I certainly do not suggest that the concepts put forth by Morse, Colomina, and McCarthy have lost their salience or theoretical force, or even that they are outdated per se. Instead, I think these concepts may guide us fruitfully through today’s media.

                The smartphone has significantly altered waiting room experiences. No longer required to pay attention to something like Accent Health’s (and the commercial drug and medical industries more generally) efforts to make us consumers of products that won’t make us any healthier, we can now select how we entertain ourselves while we wait. Similarly, services like Uber and Lyft now grant the possibility of traversing freeways on our smartphones – the app both summons a driver and tracks our progress towards our destination – so we may not be looking out the windshield, but looking through a different, smaller window. It is likely only a matter of time until the human driving the car is replaced by a car driving the car. Lastly, instead of the mall we now have amazon, which we can access on our smarphone during our Uber ride.

                Here is how Morse describes nonspace: “Nonspace is ground within which communication as a flow of values among and between two and three dimensions and between virtuality and actuality – indeed, an uncanny oscillation between life and death – can ‘take place’” (196). Another way to describe nonspace, as Morse points out, is as an impossible to precisely locate “elsewhere.” The experience of riding in an Uber on the freeway while on my smartphone involves looking out the passenger window to see where I am, but also to look through the window of my phone to see how far I am from my destination. These two spaces converge, but they are also separate, operating according to different perceptions of time. The smartphone gives me both an elsewhere and an elsewhen. 

                Similarly, McCarthy discusses a state of “deadness” that is associated with boredom, repetition, and the centerpiece of her article, waiting. McCarthy’s thinking through waiting contrasts with Morse’s notion of “mobile subjectivity.” Indeed, it may be that mobility is dependent on immobility, waiting, and interruption, all of which function to give T.V. (we might also consider the internet) a sense of immediacy, mobility, or liveness. It is worth considering also, following the smartphone example, how Uber turns the mobility of driving on the freeway into a period of waiting. 

                Lastly, following Colomina, the smartphone may bring us even further into the battle than television. Now, even away from the home we may be hit with news by a tone or slight vibration emitted by our smartphone. Our bodies are now very much the domestic spaces on which the “outside” intrudes.

                To conclude, I wonder to what extent mobility, waiting, and domesticity are consolidated in the technology that we carry around with us. Of course, the mobile smartphone grants us access to the internet almost anywhere, though we may also find ourselves frequently waiting to receive emails, news updates, etc. And the smartphone becomes a new type of home, the location where we may read the news, store family photos, pay bills, etc.