No more lack of self expressiveness, no more tacky ringtones deafening delicate ears, and no more fights and loud disputes over the mobile, turning all the passengers around into innocent victims… A precedent in Europe, a new law in Sweden takes in consideration the mobile perimeter and brings the 'silent mode' (and tranquility?) to public transportation. From August 2006, the use of mobile phones in the Swedish public transportation would be allowed only in restricted areas. Needless to say that Swedish people are furious as hell...
One of probable outcomes - if only voice services are prohibited - would be content services’ thrive together with the already very popular SMS…
Technorati Tags: the mobile perimeter, mobile, sweden, mobile culture, legislation, ringtones, public transportation
I just heard about this in the radio (on my Nokia N70!) when going to work by bus, here in Finland!
We finns and swedes like to compete (hockey, nokia vs sony ericsson etc.) and make jokes about each others and this is also what the finnish radio reporter did. She asked if speaking would be allowed in those restricted areas?
The radio reporter speculated what´s behing the new law. Are people jealous when other people have friends they can talk to?
Posted by: Nico | Friday, June 09, 2006 at 13:06
As someone who uses the train daily, I can tell you that many times I see people putting up a little 'act' in front of the people sitting near them (specifically a nice looking girl/guy...). The 'act' includes a dialog (actually to the people around, it's a monologue) which aims to present the actor's quality. So I guess jealousy can be one motivation for this new law...
Many times witnessing this behavior I think that the mobile 'perimeter' (as my friend C Enrique Ortiz calls it) would be a terrific subject for sociological study.
Posted by: Xen Mendelsohn | Friday, June 09, 2006 at 15:22