A mobile world - Luv of txt has changed our society

WHEN mobile phones were introduced 20 years ago they were about the size of one of Paul O’Connell’s rugby boots and weighed nearly as much as the man himself. The ones with the foot-and-a-half long aerials were just as dangerous.

It would have taken special perception to have seen then that, arguably, mobile phones would change the world more so than any other modern invention.

They have changed the way people interact, the way parents keep in touch with a child and the way children make friends. Now all you need is a number and away you go, no need to cycle two miles for a face-to-face.

This ease of interaction is reflected in the figures. Time spent talking on mobiles grew 22% last year while fixed line usage fell 9%.

Mobile phones have also changed the mechanics of work, making business a 24/7 possibility — or intrusion, depending on your position in the food chain.

Or, perhaps more importantly, your ability to adopt and sustain an artillery officer’s attitude: outgoing is fine, incoming may be a problem.

It would have been difficult to imagine mobiles as everyday as tea bags or as cheap as chips — Ireland has 4.98 million mobile phones for a population of 4.1 million people.

Twenty years ago Vodafone Ireland had 5,000 customers, now it has more than two million.

It would have been equally unimaginable that mobile phones would be central to the development of a new lgage, one that drives pedants to the brink of aplxy.

The effectiveness of text messaging, and the relatively low cost, has made it the backbone of social communication. In 1999 a mere 25,000 text messages were sent but that figure will pass seven billion this year. Seven billion text messages for a population of four million is a phenomenal figure and only the flatest of imaginations could not be curious about their content.

Few of us could have imagined that people could no longer be “out of contact” whether at the hairdressers or at a “very important meeting with a client”.

It has made one of the everyday heroes of Ireland an all-but-forgotten figure — the barman who would boldly tell a caller on the bar’s landline that you were not around just as he filled you another pint.

In the poorest parts of Africa they are facilitating real change and have become one of the great frontline weapons in the war on poverty.

As long as they can get a mobile signal African farmers can get the best price for their produce, not just the one offered by the local dealer. They can also access credit in a way never before possible through banks which use mobiles as a kind of personal ATM.

Their brief history and the changing etiquette attached to them offers an interesting window on how mores change.

Once it was nearly a badge of honour to interrupt fellow cinemagoers to take a call. Now it’s considered the height of ignorance. The tut tuts that once greeted mobile call during wedding speeches or while a coffin was being lowered to its place of rest have become something much more hostile.

Though there are yet unresolved health issues arising from long-term mobile use they have contributed significantly to affairs of the heart.

Many of us would be married to different people if it were not for mobiles. How often has a friend’s text message asking “guess who’s here ... ?” caused someone to leave one bar for another in pursuit of their “life partner” of choice?

Few inventions can have had such a profound impact in such a short time. Let us hope that Paul O’Connell and his teammates can have a proportionate but similar impact in Bordeaux this evening.

The celebratory text messages would help us pass that amazing seven billion mark sooner than is anticipated.