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Remember when you used to actually know people’s telephone numbers by heart? You know, back when having a pen and something to write on meant you were on your game, trying to get numbers. It’s funny when you remind people about those days; they start reminiscing like they were decades back. But really they weren’t even that long ago.
Time flies when technology advances and since the days when a quarter for the pay phone was the most essential tool for talking with friend on the go, the cell phone has invaded our lives, changing everything from where we talk to the way we listen to music.
Speaking of change, what if I told you that the same cell phone you use to “chirp” your friends could also change our government. You’d probably laugh, which is understandable since most Americans don’t realize the power they carry in their pockets.
While many of us are chatting away and downloading are favorites wallpapers, people around the globe are using their phones to sway presidential elections and to organize protests against repressive governments.
This mobile democracy of sorts is the newest moment in a long history of people using communications technology to create social change.
From Paul Revere’s horse during the American Revolution (the horse was one of the earliest forms of communications technology since communication was tied to transportation in those days), to the fax machines used by citizen to organize protest at Tiananmen Square, communications technologies have long fueled revolutions.
Today, text messaging is the new Underground Railroad for speech. Through text messages citizens around the world are mobilizing protests and coordinating civic revolts.
According to Howard Rheingold, author of “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution,” the first real test of the technology’s power occurred in 2001 when protesters in the Philippines passed a single phrase from phone to phone: “Go 2 EDSA (an acronym for a street in Manila). Wear Blck.” Their efforts emboldened everyday citizens and eventually garnered enough support to help topple President Joseph Estrada.
In China, where the government censors the Internet, cell phones play an even more critical role. There, text messaging is one of the few ways citizen can engage in conversation without being monitored.
Citizens are taking it further with the use of cameras phones. In the short time that cell phones have been equipped with this technology, people have captured everything from the London subway bombing in 2005 to Saddam Hussein’s hanging and anti-government protests this year in Burma.
Of course here in America we aren’t held captive by the same tyrnnical doctrine as citizens in other countries, but with the government’s move towards unprotested phone tapping and increased surveillance, its vital that we tap into the revolutionary power of our cell phones. If we think our freedom is under assault now, imagine when our every word is listened to and possibly even censored.
Know this is merely an introduction to a topic too important to let this die.We’ll be returning to it throughout the life of this blog. Providing the knowledge on the tools and tactics used to create change is a part of our mission.
In the mean time, embark on this task. Start imagining ways in which you can organize the takeover with your sidekick. Figure out how you may be able to catch the next Rodney King incident with your camera phone. And after you do this, go download a revolutionary anthem as your ringtone.
11 Comments, Comment or Ping
Devine Favor
I understand the importance of utilizing mobile technology to to organize a takeover, and I feel you 100% when you say “go download a revolutionary anthem as our ringtone” But Mr. Troublman, what do we do when our government uses our devices to keep tabs on us, and trace our every move? I somewhat think they are setting us up for a demise with the use of our cell phones, in the form of G.P.S or recording our every move…
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theheartofthecity
I think that we can use our cell phones to text each other about scores to a basketball games, simply say hello, or even check the times for a movie at a theatre near you! The use of our cell phones have become an essential part to our daily lives to make them easier. But I definately understand Mr. Troublman, Why not organize some power moves in society with the use of our phones? Why not utilize the time that we use on our phones in a more constructive manner? No I understand devine favor, what you mean by trying to out smart the so-called “Big Brother”, but my whole thing iss why not make something happen, before they figure that shit out?
[Reply]
Malia
I’m with Devine Favor on this one!!!! I bought a pre-paid cell phone the other day until my replacement comes and on the front of the package it said, “No contracts, no credit checks, no hassles”—-but please believe when it came time to enter in the sim number and all the other numbers, my SOCIAL SECURITY number was one of the numbers required in order to ACTIVATE the phone. Maybe they watched “The Wire” and realized that they couldn’t track drug dealers, who knows?!?!?!………but whatever the case may be——–Big brother is definitely watching!
So you are right Troublman——we need to watch them too!!!!!!
[Reply]
Barbara
I might be getting off the subject but I hate what’s happening with the rapid growth of camera phones has had a sinister side effect - men taking sneaky snapshots up our skirts!!!!! ……..then they’re pored over by a global audience of voyeurs. THAT’S JUST NASTY!!!!!!
[Reply]
Charles
What Lichtblau, Risen and Shane are describing is the dawn of a new National Surveillance State in the United States, a public-private partnership. And the object of this partnership—which emerges as a criminal conspiracy, quite literally, between telecom companies and the Bush Administration—is to watch and listen to you and everything you do. Of course, they will say it’s about “terrorists,” or about “narcotics traffickers.” And indeed every authoritarian and wannabe totalitarian system from the dawn of time has cast its snooping on citizens in just these terms. No problems with the honest citizen, they say, it’s the criminals and the enemies we’re after. We need your cooperation. But the technology used makes no such distinction—it is snooping on everyone.
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TROUBLMan
One thing we often lose sight of is that our government is made up of individuals just like us. Big brother is nothing more than a bunch of brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, etc. You get what I’m saying– they’re just people.
One thing about this group of people is that they’re organized in a way that make us believe they’re larger than us–hence, “Big Brother.”
Look up “sousveillance” and “inverse surveillance.” There are people working on ways to combat the ever increasing will of big brother.
For every camera these people use to watch us there’s a camera we have to watch them.
[Reply]
Q.
the new Underground Railroad..
that is a 2007 quotable right there..
I’m finally going down to 1 blackberry (down from 3) tomorrow.. my reason has more to do about all these cancer scares than anything else.. i want to have some babies at some point!!
seriously, we do see a revolution of sorts that has been dictated by us (mobile generation - i made that up, cuz i don’t think it’s an age thing) and these phones.. i hate talking on phones when a text message works just as well, and leaves me w/ more time on my hands.. we know about the surveillance stuff, and i’m resigned to knowing that i’m on someone’s list based on things i’ve said and done.. it is what it is.. i’m probably more afraid now of people using this new technology to get me caught up into non-sense.. i’ve already seen ppl fake text messages and all that good stuff.. it is scary..
[Reply]
Malia
Q. ——- You are hilarious! Your crazy butt is probably on a few “lists”…lol. You make me feel “normal” (and that’s hard to do because there is absolutely NOTHING “normal” about me). Your posts crack me up, you almost made me spit out my Arrowhead all over my keyboard! I’m gonna have to do a character study on you and write you into my next book!
3 Blackberrys?!?!?! Nicca what kinda covert ops you got goin on????
Oooops *bad Malia, spanking hand* sorry, but you left yourself wide open for that one……
TROUBLMan —— Okay, okay……maybe I’ve been watchin too many movies or reading too many scripts but I’m pretty dang paranoid! Did you ever see that movie with Will Smith where they had bugging devices all over him, his clothes, his shoes, his watch and picked him up by satellite and heat censors???? Well, is that stuff not real? I mean the growing and dehumanizing effects of increased video surveillance, automated face recognition, and Covernment (Corporate+Government) tracking in public places, as well as private places? Is my little camera phone any match for what they got goin on?
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TROUBLMan
Malia–I feel you. You not paranoid, the shit is very real. But we can’t just accept it without doing something about it.
Your one camera has a lot of power. Remember it was one camera that sparked the Rodney King controversy. Before then, police brutality was something people of color talked about. After Rodney King, the term “police brutality” became a part of the nation’s vocabulary and therefore a part of it conscious.
Imagine if we created a culture where people understood that there phones could counter the powers that be. What if every time the police detained someone we all pulled out our camera phones? Don’t you think their behavior would change?
All technology has the power to be used for positive or negative. And every culture and movement starts as a seed. Let’s water it.
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"a mom"
Yes!
One evening my daughter was attacked on the bus coming from night school by two young ladies. She didn’t have time to use her cell phone to get a picture because it happen so fast. But someone on that bus could have if they had the heart. Even the bus driver acted like nothing was happening. If I was on that bus I would have done so. I also have a HP camera that takes video, it’s a little larger than a credit card. I keep it in my purse just waiting. Let something happen when I’m around! CLICK! SNAP!
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Q.
Malia..
Don’t search too hard!! I want my dirt to stay covered!! But, I definitely was playing too many games with 3 crackberries!! The past is the past, right?? LOL.. Let’s leave that alone!!
TroublMan..
I feel you on the having the camera (or phone) thing.. Shoot, I stay with mine!! Luckily i don’t drive in NYC, but if i did, i’m sure i’d be the first dude abused by a cop with his own phone/camera, because i’d be all in their face snapping pics!!
Q.
[Reply]
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♦ TROUBLMan - Eat It
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