CELL PHONE TETRAD (BLOG POST)

Toni Duke, EDUC 8848 Module 2

This week, April 3, 2013, marks the 40-year anniversary of the first cell phone!

Enhancement/Extension: The establishment of the cell phone enhanced communication from far-away places. Prior to the invention of the cell phone, people had to travel far to reach one another to communicate. The use of today’s cell phone has greatly improved cost of use. After the initial costly purchase of a cell or smart phone today, one can talk for a fraction of the cost of those in the 1970s and 1980s.

Obsolete: The cell phone reduced the need for people to travel to communicate. Today’s smartphones reduce the need to carry many devices (i.e. calculators, address books, calendars, grocery lists, mp3 players, cameras, etc.), as the phones of today contain all of these features – and more…and if they don’t, there are apps that allow all of these methods of productivity – and some!

Retrieval: The cell phone of today rekindles the ability to speak to another person from a far distance, and to take long trips to visit in order to enjoy a face-to-face conversation, as the smartphones of today provide the ability to see others’ faces as we enjoy conversations through add-on services, and apps like Skype, Tango, etc.

Reversal: The establishment of cell/smartphones has set the tone for the creation of many more capabilities to improve productivity for personal and business use.

As early as the 1930s travelers could place phone calls from and to ocean liners in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The process was driven by Marine VHF Radio and cost $7 a minute (roughly $100 a minute when adjusted for inflation to today’s money).

The first fully automated mobile phone system for vehicles was launched in Sweden by TeliaSonera and Ericsson in 1956. Named MTA (Mobile Telephone system A). This was the first time calls could be made and received in the car while using the public telephone network.

April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment. The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Cooper weighed 2.5 pounds and measured 9 inches long, 5 inches deep and 1.75 inches wide. The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to re-charge” (Netprolive, n.d.).

Social twist: I purchased my first cell phone, a large phone-in-a-bag, in the early 1990s. I thought that was the first of the cell phone. Knowing what I know now about tetrads and the realization of technology, I would have been able to identify those that came before mine, and how much they had improved – both in cost and design. I recall vividly one of my close friend’s acquisition of the large, white cell phone that he carried everywhere. Socially, it was a sign of being “established” or “wealthy”, because not everyone could afford the phone nor the air time (or talk time, as we refer to it today).

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.) Mobile devices and the future [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2643401_1%26url%3D

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.) McLuhan’s tetrad  [Video]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2643401_1%26url%3D

Netprolive (n.d.). World’s first in technology: The first cell phone. Retrieved from http://www.netprolive.com/cellphones.php

Thornburg, D.D. (2008). Emerging Technologies and McLuhan’s Laws of Media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for space Exploration.