A Good Time to Talk about Cellphones

It's been 50 years since Martin Cooper famously put in a call in his handheld cellphone in April 1973.  And I've now been interviewed three times about how this now ubiquitous device has revolutionized our lives:

• on WDET (NPR) Radio, 9 September 2022, How cellphones affect our modern lives
• on BBC World, 17 June 2023, Controlled and connected: 50 years of the cell phone
• on Being Frank podcast, 22 June 2023, Dr. Paul Levinson discusses Artificial Intelligence (discussion of cellphones starts at 39 mins 55 secs)
  
  

And my book, Cellphone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium, and How It Has Changed Everything, which I wrote on the fly in 2003, in between two science fiction novels, and in my first year as Chair (ugh!) of the Communication and Media Studies Department at Fordham University, is suddenly getting a lot of attention and sales.

So, it's a good time to talk about cellphones -- in contrast to talking on or via cellphones, when you're not using them to text, take pictures, listen to music, or roam the many fields of social media (for my thoughts on which, see my New New Media).

And speaking of pictures on the phone and music, you might enjoy this demo from 2020.