The New York Times > New York Region > Area Codes, Now Divorced From Their Areas
Blogger, blogger why did you eat my blog-post last night? This article inspired quite a bit of thinking about phones, places, changes from places to people, identity... I disagree with a statement that is made half way through the article that numbers don't mean as much anymore. On the contrary, they do, but that meaning has been transfigurated into something different. Where numbers used to denote class status to people within immediate physical proximity but meant simply place of current residence to people outside such location, numbers now mean - origin, allegiance, source, attachment. Changing numbers is as much a symbolic statement as it is practical even when the symbolic aspect of it is not articulated by the users. The question of "where are you from" can now sometimes be answered by obtainining their cell phone number. This can also be an indication of just how much the person in question identifies with their current location (is their area code local?).
Yet not all of this can be symbolic for the reasons of infrastructure resistance. In some places cellular phones still do not work, in others, it is necessary to obtain a landline for a number of reasons. Yet in most urban areas the symbolic nature of the cell phone persists. Numbers still mean something... they mean people now, not places but individual allegiance to places. Same? Different? time will show.
No comments:
Post a Comment