According to the Pew research center, 83 percent of American adults now own cell phones and almost three-quarters send and receive text messages. Cellphone owners between the ages of 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages a day -- more than 3200 messages per month.
Other research suggests that users check their smart phones about every six and a half minutes, an average of 150 times during a waking day of 16 hours.
I like cell phones because they make people sit still, unaware of their surroundings, perfect models for my sketchbook.
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Previously on GJ:
The Spell of the Cell (2010)
Cell Phone Talk (2007)
Source: Daily Mail, Edutopia.
Walking around a university campus is very revealing. I wonder what the number is for walking and texting. But of course the scariest is driving and texting. Way too many poised on the edge of a cliff.
ReplyDeleteI see a distinct similarity between hardcore cellphone users and zombies. Cultural thing, I guess.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, my sketchbook is now full of drawings of people holding phones or eating.
ReplyDeletemy sister dislike it when people use cell phones. she's always tired of people staring at their bellybuttons. it's gotten to the point where the zoo has become her favorite haunt for drawing people since they aren't staring down.
ReplyDeleteIn the early days of cell phones, before everyone had them, I was teaching an evening class at a community college. Coming out of the classroom I saw (from behind) one of my students standing alone in the middle of the plaza with her head buried in her hands. I thought something was wrong and moved over to ask her. Then I saw that she was talking on a cell phone. Stopped just in time to avoid feeling REALLY stupid.
ReplyDeleteI love these sketches! I'm one of those people who get lost in my cell phone in public. Feel free to sketch away if you catch me doing it.
ReplyDeleteI have nieces who won't answer a phone call or reply to a voice message; but they will respond to texts.....So reluctantly I have become one of the roughly 75% who text. But, I doubt I will send even 109.5 texts this year let alone in a day. I have big thumbs and fingers! And painting is a lot less fun with a cell phone in my hand.
ReplyDeleteWhen doing gesture/posture studies I was shocked how in a huge public place over several hours more than 50% of the people sat staring down on their phone, not even making a phone call.
ReplyDeleteI looked at my sketches and they all looked the same.
The only significantly different sketches were of kids who ran around, fought and climbed on things.