With the expansion of cell phones into so many aspects
of our lives, it's hardly surprising that cell phones
are playing a growing role in the political sphere.
A huge majority of 88% of American voters own cell phones,
27% of whom have used their devices for politics-related
purposes. While it is clear that the relationship between
cell phones and politics has grown to be significant,
it is less immediately evident what, exactly, the new
role of cell phones in politics is.
One major component of the role of mobile devices in
politics is their effect on the spread of information.
Cell phones, especially smart phones, afford their users
faster, easier, and more frequent access to information,
making them less likely to miss updates on campaigns
and political events and issues. The convenient and
quick access that smart phones afford their users may
also encourage smart phone-owning voters to be more
active in following political news than they would if
they did not use smart phones.
Interestingly, a 2012 study reports that 35% of smart
phone-owning voters use have used their devices to check
whether political information they had received was
correct. This figure suggests that the widespread use
of smart phones among voters serves as an agent of the
critical assessment of political information. After
all, checking facts on a smart phone is often easier,
faster, and more convenient than waiting to access the
Internet from a computer, or another news outlet. It
is very possible that the wide ownership of cell phones
among voters is encouraging people to check information,
a change that can affect political conversations as
well as the roles of propaganda and hearsay in politics.
The widespread use of cell phones also facilitates
conversation surrounding politics. By providing their
users with a means of communicating with friends and
family quickly, easily, and almost constantly, cell
phones allow political conversations to occur more frequently
and spontaneously in places and at times they otherwise
might not. This expansion of political conversation
holds the potential to bring more ideas to discussions
on politics by bringing more people into them more often,
and to change the way constituents relate to and talk
about politics.
Smart phones in particular have impacted not only interpersonal
discussions on politics, but political conversation
in a broader sense. By making social media more accessible
to their users, smart phones encourage their owners
to use these media more often. Since politics have permeated
social media, this consequence of owning a smart phone
makes people more likely not only to see online political
content via their phones, but to participate in more
public discussions by means such as leaving comments
on posts (an action that almost one in five smart phone-owning
voters have taken). This change affords many constituents
greater opportunities for advocacy and expands the national,
public conversation on political issues.
The ubiquity of cell phones has popularized still more
means of involving people in politics. While calls to
the landline on behalf of a candidate are nothing new,
cell phones have modernized and expanded campaign outreach
both by offering campaigns text messaging and social
media as means of outreach to constituents and increasing
the volume of outreach through these means. The expansion
of this element of politics has the potential to influence
voters' opinions, and may even afford them another outlet
to become politically involved.
Though their role in politics is still growing, cell
phones appear to be a rising agent of democracy. By
expanding access and communication, the widespread use
of mobile devices among voters allows for the greater
involvement of the people in politics.
About the Author -
NotePage, Inc. develops SMS, alphanumeric paging and
wireless messaging software solutions. http://www.notepage.net
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