Beyond The Net
Cellphones shape social behavior among teens in Japan
By Janine Warner
Imagine how important your cellphone would be if using it were the only way to get together with your friends after school, compare notes about your classes, or keep in touch with your high-school sweetheart.
That's the reality for most of the young people in Japan today, arguably the most wired population in the world with 97 percent cellphone usage reported among Japanese college students and 79 percent among high school students.
''Kids get phones because they are excluded if they don't have one,'' said Mizuko Ito, a visiting scholar at the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California.
Although the United States lags behind with only about a third of teenagers using cellphones today, that number is expected to grow to two-thirds by 2005, according to the Yankee Group.
Ito's research in Japan, however, provides a glimpse into social changes that are dramatically altering the way young people interact all over the world.
Ito, who has a doctorate from Stanford and a master's degree from Harvard, specializes in the anthropological study of technology use. At a conference at the University of Berkeley this month, she reported some of her findings on the use of cellphones by Japanese youth.
''[Cellphones] extend the spatial and temporal boundaries of a physical encounter,'' she said, explaining that cellphones are providing a way for young people to stay in touch when they are apart.
Japanese youth use text messaging to send brief, silent messages to each other in places where it would not have been appropriate, or private enough, to have a conversation before. Students share text messages during classes, as they ride the subway and in front of their parents, she said.
To help conference attendees appreciate the impact in Japan, Ito explained that most Japanese teenagers don't get much privacy. School is very strict, and often they share a room at home, so the cellphone becomes one of the only ways to have private conversations.
Linked by cellphones and possessing the ability to exchange silent messages anytime, anywhere, these young people respond to each other quickly, creating the feeling of always being connected.
''A 30-minute delay in replying was cause for apology,'' Ito found. Most kids respond almost instantaneously to each other's messages. Leaving a cellphone at home, or turning it off except in extreme circumstances, is highly taboo, she added.
Because contact is almost constant, kids no longer need to set appointments with each other based on time and place. More importantly, they no longer need to wait for each other to arrive somewhere.
For example, instead of agreeing to meet by the statue in the plaza at 3 p.m., they can query each other as to their current locations, agree to head for a common area, and then trade messages as they walk or travel by subway. That makes it possible to coordinate a final meeting place as they close in on a shared location.
Kids can also inform each other of impromptu events, like a fight in the school playground or a sale at a local mall.
In his new book, Smart Mobs, Howard Rheingold describes how groups of young people in Tokyo's Shibuya crossing would swarm together, almost like a school of fish, using cellphones to coordinate their final formation.
Text messaging on cellphones also provides a discreet way to get someone's attention. It's considered rude to initiate a voice call without sending an e-mail or IM first to see if they're available, Ito said.
Being able to check silently before calling also makes it possible to communicate at odd hours. In the past, if you were studying until 1 a.m. and had a question for a peer, you would never have called their home phone because you would awaken the entire household. But with text messaging, and phones set to vibrate, you can check to see if someone is available, then follow up with a quiet voice call.
All this demonstrates that for Japanese teens cellphones aren't just portable extensions of the phones most of us have at home. These little wireless devices, which now come with built-in cameras and even video capability, represent a fundamental shift in the way people communicate.
Consider the impact on other cultures as these trends spread throughout the world, including the United States, where cellphone use is growing rapidly. The highly-wired youths of Japan provide a glimpse into emerging social habits and changes in personal interaction that most of us will likely take for granted in the future.
Janine Warner is an Internet consultant and speaker. She is also the author of several books about the Internet, including ''Dreamweaver MX For Dummies.'' To see past columns, visit www.JCWarner.com.
First publication, The Miami Herald, Monday, April. 7, 2003
