Some notes on mobile phones oberservation

Chering, Yvonne and I went on K51 to Tuen Mun Town Centre to see how people use their phones on bus and at the bus stop. It was excited that we pretended to be not knowing each other and sat separately. We tried to be an ordinary passenger instead of a researcher. In front of me was a young couple. The girl kept on sending SMS to her friend. Although she was texting, she leaned against her boyfriend shoulder and rolled his arm. It seemed that she was trying to keep a close distance with her boyfriend even though she was communciating with another time and space. A minute after, the boy's mobile phone rang and he picked up the phone. The girl could not lean his shoulder and roll his arm anymore because the boy was trying to sit straight in order to answer the call. The girl then put her hand on top of the boy's hand which was not holding the phone, to show her intimate care. In this sense, the girl has tried all means to tackle the farness brought by mobile phones and made her boyfriend felt connected in the intimate relationship.

Another interesting obersavtion I made was in the Tuen Mun Town Centre bus stop. The major attribute of mobile phones was reversed. The word "mobile" means you are able to move freely. However, I saw a user could not move freely when he was using mobile phone. It is because he was smoking next to the garbage can. Since the penality of littering is $1500 HKD, people are afraid to be charged.The user had to stop near to the garbage can and had a quick smoking before going on the bus. The social regulations blocked the mobility of mobile phone. The user could not go anywhere he wanted but stoped a particular place before he finished his cigarette.