Smartphones are changing the way we tell stories, says Kate Pullinger, presenting new and exciting opportunities for arts organisations.
Phones are all around us. When we look up from our own, we see that everyone else is looking down at theirs. Our phones are with us wherever we go, in our pockets, our bags, in our hands. A recent PEW research report outlines the ways that phones have become ubiquitous; for a growing number of people, in particular those aged 18-29, the smartphone provides their primary access to the internet.
As well as using our phones more, we are also accessing multiple forms of content on these devices. We make and watch videos, we take and share photos. We chatter. We play games. We watch movies and TV. We listen. And we read. We read texts and messages, we read social media feeds, we read journalism, we read gossip, we read commentary. A lot of the time we spend staring at our phones we are reading.
And yet most of us don’t consider our phones to be our primary reading device, despite evidence to the contrary; when asked “what are you reading?” (does anyone ask this question anymore?) we might look a bit guilty, as the title of the last book we finished escapes us. While people do read ebooks on their phones via apps like Kindle and Kobo, they are in a minority. Many people find the temptations of Candy Crush and Facebook to be too great a distraction and prefer to do their reading offline via print books and ereaders; many more people don’t make it off their smartphones and into the book at all... Keep reading on The Conversation
Phones are all around us. When we look up from our own, we see that everyone else is looking down at theirs. Our phones are with us wherever we go, in our pockets, our bags, in our hands. A recent PEW research report outlines the ways that phones have become ubiquitous; for a growing number of people, in particular those aged 18-29, the smartphone provides their primary access to the internet.
As well as using our phones more, we are also accessing multiple forms of content on these devices. We make and watch videos, we take and share photos. We chatter. We play games. We watch movies and TV. We listen. And we read. We read texts and messages, we read social media feeds, we read journalism, we read gossip, we read commentary. A lot of the time we spend staring at our phones we are reading.
And yet most of us don’t consider our phones to be our primary reading device, despite evidence to the contrary; when asked “what are you reading?” (does anyone ask this question anymore?) we might look a bit guilty, as the title of the last book we finished escapes us. While people do read ebooks on their phones via apps like Kindle and Kobo, they are in a minority. Many people find the temptations of Candy Crush and Facebook to be too great a distraction and prefer to do their reading offline via print books and ereaders; many more people don’t make it off their smartphones and into the book at all... Keep reading on The Conversation