Quick question:
How "attached" or "bonded" are you to your phone?
Do you like it - care for it - grieve slightly when you "upgrade" - or is
it just a lump of plastic and metal ? When you bought a new phone did you
throw the old one away - or is it sitting around somewhere, to be smiled
at slightly fondly when you come across it... Does your phone exist within
your "bodyspace" or outside it? (That is clumsily put - perhaps it is
simpler to say - are you always aware of exactly where it is?)
In short, do you have some sort of "emotional" link to it that you do not
have to, for example, your video, television, landline phone, etc....
Does your phone have any little cartoon characters that shrug when they
don't know who incoming email address is from, dance and smile when you
switch the phone on, etc etc....
If you answer (onlist or off) please say whether you are in Japan or not.
(I am curious as to whether "Japanese" (or gaijin in Japan) attitudes are
different to people in Europe or the US)
The point is this: if there is a "bond" between a piece of equipment
(either with or without the use of very limited AI cartoon characters in
the handset) then is one (question) more likely to be persuaded to accept
services delivered through that handset...?
I think the whole line of argument that goes "you can do this better on a
computer so no-one will do it on a phone" is missing something(s) crucial
- I am trying to establish exactly what.... There has been a lot of
discussion of what handsets can do - but not so much of what handsets
"ARE" - i.e. - user responses to handsets as handsets and the intimacy of
the relationship.
Is this just a Japanese thing? Or do I just know a lot of sad people....
Nick (off to be tucked up in bed by the little cat that lives in his
keitai... Very friendly he is. Did I tell you about the time he.....? He
is my only real friend - he even tells me who my calls are from .... I
hope I can take him with me when I change phone - if I can't I won't
upgrade and then DOCOMO will be angry.... Me? Emotionally manipulated? NO!
Wonder who owns the patents...)
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Received on Wed Aug 8 18:47:13 2001