First Cellular Phone

pointed it out and they joked about how they just are two guys against four girls yet they are dominating the conversation.

The interview was approximately 1 hour 17 minutes long. Some of the questions that were asked as probes were:

 What was your first cell phone?

 When did you shift to smartphones?

 How are the different IM applications you have used different from each other? Why did you shift to new applications?

 How has this shift impacted your style of chatting?

 Has chatting improved your interpersonal relationships?

There were many topics covered in the interview that were related to either the instant messaging applications or the mobile phones that the participants had. These topics were: first mobile phone; first colour screen mobile; first smartphones and the shift that came with the adjustment of using these smartphones; MXit; WhatsApp; using abbreviations and acronyms; face-to-face communication versus chat; who they chat to the most; group chats; greeting in the beginning of chats and at the end; style of chatting, grammar usage in chats; ending of chats as well as predictive texting. This chapter argues that, as a result of the shift and advancement of technology the chatting styles and habits of my participants have shifted as well. Furthermore, this analysis explores the affordances that these smartphones allow in comparison to older mobile phones, such as, creating a synchronous as well as an asynchronous platform for chatting.

5.4 Interview Data Analysis

5.4.1 First Cellular Phone

Many of the participants started off with what was then called the „black and white‟ phone. Here, I describe the participants‟ first phones, how they have progressed since then and how this progression has affected their mobile use. Tasneem and Brandon both had Nokia 3310s and Nabeelah had a Siemens A30; these are often referred to as „black and white‟ mobile

92 phones. Mahmood had a Sagem C2 and both Kiara and Billie had different models of a Samsung that were colour screen phones. Everyone was happy with their first mobile phone and everything about their phones excited them. Kiara, however, was happy but not obsessed with her mobile phone at the time she acquired it.

This section of the interview shows how the participants started in the mobile world and what technological features were associated with these mobiles and how the shift to the next generation of mobiles evolved, affording user‟s different experiences technologically and socially.

Going back and talking about the time when they all acquired their first mobile phones, incurred memories that brought smiles to their faces and excitement to their speech. There was an animation about the conversation that could only come from remembering the happiness and feelings of elation that accompanied these acquisitions. They remembered all the little things about their first mobile phones, such as make, model, colour, features, who gave it to them, when they acquired it and so on. All the participants received their first mobiles from their parents, except for Brandon who received his first mobile phone from his sister as a gift.

Extract 5.1

13. B: Anyway, my first phone I can still remember it clear, was a 3310 and uhm I actually got it as a present from my sister which made me extremely happy. Uhm it had a dolphin face coz I didn‟t like the original face. [Everyone laughs]. That time it was fashion not to have the original face.

The participants received their mobile phones at different times and ages, some even as early as grade four. For example, Billie acquired her first mobile in grade six for her birthday:

Extract 5.2

65. Bi: I got my first phone I think in grade 6. It was that small Samsung, when you flip it over it was a colour screen.

93 During the interview there were talks of the „first generation‟ mobiles from the past having a battery life that could last for days, the games that were only available on certain mobile phones and how exciting it was to be able to download ringtones from different websites despite the cost being so high. Tasneem and Nabeelah made reference to this during the interview:

Extract 5.3

37. T: Oh uhm I got my first phone in grade 4. I remember it was a Nokia 3310 and like the coolest thing about it was that you could play like that snakey game for the whole day.

[LAUGHTER AND AGREEMENT] And also like the battery lasted for like= = 38. N: = =Forever and a day

One of the main reasons why the battery life on these mobile phones lasted so long was because during the black and white phone era, people used their mobiles for simple transactional communications and there were not so many applications on the mobiles to drain the battery life. The hardware was also a lot less powerful than modern phones, and thus were less power hungry. These phones were used for functional and transactional communication purposes and to get important messages across. It cost quite a bit of money to make phone calls based on your service provider, as well as the tariff you were on. Now that social networking has become so popular, people use their mobiles as a means of socialising and the cost is next to nothing in comparison to making voice phone calls. As a result of the cost reduction, many people started utilizing this means of communication. Mobile phones are now constantly being used to stay connected in the form of social media applications and instant messaging applications.

During the discussion, many words of positive and endearing depictions were used to describe their mobile phones, the first as well as their latest smartphones, as a fashion statement and a way of fitting in socially. At the time when the participants received their first mobile phones, their phones were very important to them and as a result when they described their first phones as awesome, cool, kwaai and so forth. (See Extract 5.4 below)

94 Even though the mobile phones were not as „awesome‟ as the ones they have now, at the time it was the best thing they could possibly have received. The fact that they had their own mobile phone and could play games was what was most important. Just having a mobile phone then was considered enough to fit in socially, but if you had one of the „popular‟ or most sought after mobile phones that caused the „band wagon‟ effect, then you were considered to be part of the in crowd, which at the time was the Nokia 3310. Although this mobile was not GPRS enabled, these were the phones that my participants started their „mobile communication era‟ with. Many of the participants expressed emotional attachments to one or more of their mobile phones. Mahmood was one of the participants who expressed this attachment (See turns 17-30):

Extract 5.4

17. M: Naai, I remember my phone was like er I dunno if you guys know it‟s like a Sagem. No one knows about that phone.

18. N: Yor that was that, that came from overseas. [Everyone laughs] 19. B: I know that phone.

20. M: Ya one of those giants. But it was actually a really cool phone. It was just so small (illustrates with hands) but you can like flip it open.

21. B: But you had the block one also neh= = 22. M: = =Naai naai just a small one= = 23. B: = =Yes there was a block one also.

24. M: It was a Sagem C2. It was just so small (illustrates with his hands), it was like as small as this (points to the voice recorder) and you can like flip it open= =

25. B: = =Ya I know about that.

26. M: and it had er- it had everything, it had camera, it could go on Internet. For my first phone it was like really= =

27. N: = =He didn‟t start at the bottom. [EVERYONE LAUGHS] 28. M: Yes I had Internet.

29. B: Yor [EVERYONE LAUGHS]        

95 30. M: and internet and stuff. The only problem there was at first was I couldn‟t like download MXit because that was like the in thing but- and afterwards I got it right. But it was actually a cool phone. I still miss it though.

Thus, from the above it is evident that the participants developed emotional attachments to their first mobile/cellular phone.