Telecommunication by voice first and then all the rest

from about 1999 to 2024 voice calls seem now to be secondary

When cellphones began to reach ordinary people, not just high-powered government and business people who needed to be just a phone call away from their office or clients, it was imagined as a cordless phone of unlimited mobility, no longer limited to the device's cradle transmission distance. Physical shape ('candybar' and later 'flip' or slide-open design) and presence of dedicated keypad had some likeness to landline phones and cordless ones, too.

With the addition of a crude camera,  people were puzzled: why add a camera when film and even the start of point-and-shoot digital cameras give better results as a dedicated device. But as cellphone cameras became better and even offered short video with synchronized sound, more and more people started to see the device as equally important for visual recording as it was for making and receiving phone calls. One result was the rise of photo sharing sites, increasing use of pictures in online communication, news gathering, publication and other professional purposes, as well as hobby uses.

The processing power and improving screen display (size and resolution, too) ramped up and makers of dedicated specialty apps attracted more and more interest, too. So what started as a new form of telephoning on the go, now became a (video) camera with the secondary use to make voice calls. As more and more people experienced the convenience of SMS text messaging, they substituted short messages for what used to be open-ended, sometimes meandering voice calls. That way the interaction was brief and the timing of the question or comment was less intrusive and less all-demanding of the person's attention. Sometimes even people on a date could be seen texting across the table instead of looking eye to eye in spoken dialog. State governments began to acknowledge the attention stolen by texting while driving and the deaths caused as a result of driver and sometimes also the victim struck who were staring at the screen of their portable device - whether it was cellphone (or smartphone) or tablet.

Now in summer 2023, there are people from all walks of life and in all sorts of locations intently gazing into their screens. Sometimes they are swiping, scrolling, using navigation gestures. Other times they are putting in text by thumb-typing or by using the dictation feature that often works. A few people may plug their ears with bluetooth earbuds as they playback a podcast, or listen to streamed radio stations for music or talk shows. And very occasionally they seem to be talking to themselves, but in fact are engaged in an old-fashioned voice call. In summary, what began as new-fangled way to carry a phone far beyond the range of cordless phones, now has made telephoning almost incidental or insignificant on a daily basis or cumulatively in the life-time of a cellphone. 

People pay a heftier price every couple of years, sometimes spending more money than they do for a full-size laptop or desktop computer of much larger capacity. But when more and more of your business and pleasure is mediated by the battery-powered device in your pocket or purse, then such prices can be rationalized in various ways. It is worth considering what may come next in this shift away from landlines at fixed locations and the diminution of voice communication even as other forms gain more and more use and attention (and expectation).

live theater long ago and today - Kyoto's Kabuki-za

For the past 100 years when artificial dyes and synthetic fabrics, neon, and plastics have made daily life filled with color, and with semi-conductors making battery powered sources of light and color ever more visually stimulating, people's awareness and arousal by color has been dulled. So the fantastical costumes, make-up, and effects of the pre-electronic and pre-plastic period of kabuki theater seems to make less of an impression on the audiences of now.

kabukiza in Kyoto

This clip from the national Culture Day holiday in Kyoto shows the front of the theater with its flashes of the metallic petals flickering in an eye-catching display not normally seen on a building facade; goodness knows what happens during the typhoon season!

With the relentless pace of innovations in consumer electronics, personal transportation, and software apps for mobile phones, it is nice to see that performance art forms like kabuki continue to attract audiences - whether it is first-timers and foreigners, or it is life-long fans who follow the stage careers of their favorite actors. Perhaps there is some element of nostalgia for pre-electronic, pre-telecommunication times. And maybe, too, there is another element of wanting to financially supporting older art forms for its own sake, whether one is deeply involved or is a more distant supporter. Whatever the mix of motivations in the audience, or even within one person, the productions continue to be made and tickets continue to sell.