Following on from yesterday's posting on teenage use of mobile phones because they derive their identities from being part of a group, it turns out that criminal teens are even more avid mobile phone users than average teenagers - in Japan. Needing to keep the gang up-to-date on criminal plans?
And in Norway those teens who use their mobile phones the most lose their virginity the earliest and have sex more frequently than teenagers who use their phones less.
And American teens still prefer instant messaging to SMS - from their PCs at home. Another indicator of a major cause of obesity across the pond I would say. At least European teens are out and about (or having sex) while they text, thus burning off calories.
(Thanks to Techdirt)
Norwegian taxi drivers are insisting that passengers ask first before using their mobile phones. Techdirt comments that this probably wouldn't work in New York.
Initially I thought this was an example of Norwegian egalitarianism - just because I am a taxi driver, doesn't mean you should treat me (and my workplace, as the taxi driver quoted in the article describes his cab) with disrespect. But then Americans are very egalitarian too. I suspect the key difference lies in the dimensions defined by Hofstede of masculine and feminine societies. American society falls in the masculine/small power distance quadrant whereas Norway falls in the feminine/small power distance quadrant. Hence both are egalitarian but in Norway "people and warm relationships are important" versus "money and things are important in the US" and Norwegians "work in order to live" versus Americans "live in order to work."
Broad generalisations of course, as often happens in intercultural theory, but it explains the Scandinavian attachment to the Welfare State and the American impatience with rotten customer service in Northern Europe. As it happens there is another article in the same Norwegian newspaper about how the Oslo taxi company has forced its drivers to sign a contract saying that they will be polite to customers.
The issue raised by another commenter on the Techdirt article, of why mobile phone conversations should be viewed any differently by the taxi driver from overhearing conversations between two passengers in the back of their cab, has been one much debated by sociologists looking at mobile phone usage. I'm trying to remember where I saw an analysis of this - of why mobile phone conversations are somehow more intrusive and offensive to people nearby than overhearing other people's face to face conversations... I'll link to it when I find it.