Final Essay

In today’s market, one can no longer obtain a mobile phone merely to perform its’ most basic function, a phone that only makes calls. Most phones now come equipped with an assortment of extras such as a still camera, a Web access device, an mp3 player, or a game system. In just a few short years, mobile phones have become the electronic equivalents of the Swiss army knife (Jenkins, 2006: 5). Welcome to the age of technological convergence, where old technologies are merging together to create new technologies.


One prime example of this form of technological convergence is the iPhone. Using this device as a case study, I shall attempt to explore the social and cultural changes brought about by the introduction of new technologies into society, along with ways in which users of the iPhone use this technology to construct their sense of identity.



What you see in that advertisement is merely a fraction of what the iPhone can do; this device also includes (to list a few others) a still camera, a gaming system as well as provide weather updates. It is currently considered the epitome of convergence of technology available in today’s market. Introduced by Apple Industries in America in June 2007, followed by the Australian market one year later, on the 11th of July 2008, the iPhone has gained massive popularity amongst the local market. There was so much hype surrounding the iPhone that during its’ launch, throngs of fans queued up till 11 hours just to be the first to get their hands on this little gadget.

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When new media was first introduced into society, it was assumed that it “was going to push aside old media; that the Internet was going to displace broadcasting and that all of this would enable consumers more access to media and content that was personally meaningful to them” (Jenkins, 2006: 5). This is in fact what is going on today as many users of new technology no longer consider themselves the dupes of consumerism but rather active users who are not only able to “adapt to technological change” but also have a hand in shaping it. Using the iPhone, one is able to access sites of interest to them on the Internet from just about anywhere network coverage is available. In order to keep up with these changing times, certain companies have chosen to “adapt to these technological changes” (Bell, 2001: 66) and have updated their image in order to meet growing customers’ demands for prompt, accessible and convenient services. For example, one of Australia’s leading banks, ANZ which has started to provide internet banking accessible through the iPhone.


“By choosing certain products over others we are exercising our judgment of taste, through which we articulate our sense of class, background, and cultural identity” (Paterson, 2006: 37). And one of the ways in which we articulate our notions of taste is through the consumption of brands. By choosing certain brands over others we are able to define our identities through branded items that we wear, use or endow ourselves with. This is because there lies a “significance of the brand, itself articulated in a complex web of intertextuality that becomes the main use-value value of the product: it allows a process positioning, or ‘negotiation of the self’ in relation to the shifting demands of everyday life” (Arvidsson, 2006: 5). Surrounding the iPhone are notions of being tech savvy, of being ahead of the times in owning a piece of new technology, that one comes from a certain class in order to be able to afford it (since it costs around AUD$550¹) , and above all, it is a phone that embodies notions of ‘cool’. Using futuristic ads such as these,


Apple Industries are able to market the iPhone as a product that contributes to one’s need for the consumption of the cool. By choosing the iPhone over other mobile phone brands such as Nokia or Motorola, one would also be choosing to consume all these ideologies symbolized within the brand of the device.


The iPhone can be viewed as a brand that is “an omnipresent tool by means of which identity, social relations and shared experiences could be constructed” (Arvidsson, 2006: 3). The iPhone is no longer merely a site for technological convergence. It is also able to create sites of social convergence which allows “two or more individuals to move toward one point, or for individuals to move toward others and unite in a common interest or focus” (Lind & Zmud, 1991: 197). Within the social networking site, Facebook, groups of people have congregated together just because they feel connected through their shared interest in the iPhone.
Click *here* to access iPhone fans website on Facebook.


It has been previously theorized that the creation of online communities [such as Facebook] would slowly replace “public spaces such as pubs and cafés as loci of public social interaction” (Peterson & Wilson, 2002: 456). However, with the introduction of new technology such as the iPhone which has integrated a Web browser into it, old theories such as that were formed when Internet access was restricted to where the equipment was kept are slowly breaking down. We are no longer required to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world, cooped up in a room in order to access the Internet as these limitations are slowly being eroded and access to the virtual world is available from just about any café or pub. Especially since the Facebook application can now be downloaded into the iPhone and through it, users are able to gain unlimited accessibility and a feeling of being constantly ‘plugged’ into the network even when offline.


It has been “suggested that external objects become viewed as part of self when we are able to exercise power or control over them, just as we might control an arm or a leg… The greater the control we exercise the more closely allied with self the object should become” (Belk, 1988: 140). Using this idea, it can be said that we are able to create our sense of identity through mobile phones using them as a site of self-expression through practices of customization such as creating individual ring tones and wall papers. However, the iPhone is not merely limited to these ideas of customization. Because it has also integrated its predecessor in the Apple line of products, the iPod , practices of customization are now expanded to include one’s choices in music. Through the iPhone, we are also able to define our identity by “customizing music to [suite our] mood and environments” (Bull, 2007: 127).


Convergence today “represents a cultural shift as consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among dispersed media” (Jenkins, 2006: 3). New technologies like the iPhone enable this by encouraging “participatory culture” which “contrasts with older notions of passive media spectatorship” (Jenkins, 2006: 3) and through this, consumers are also able to have a hand in shaping the creation of media surrounding them. The increased mobility of the iPhone also allows one to interact within virtual social networks while simultaneously being “part of interacting communities, societies or cultures” (Peterson & Wilson, 2002: 455) in the real world. One is now able to be both offline and online at the same time. It is also through these multiple outlets of media that consumers of new technology are able to “develop their identities in ways that carry over to other settings” (Peterson & Wilson, 2002: 457). This device allows the creation of self-identity not only through the consumption of the myths surrounding the brand but also through practices of customization which have expanded due to the different new technologies incorporated into it. The convergence of technology has enabled us to achieve so much more merely through a single device.