Cultural Artifact

Each person may or may not have something that they value or emphasize. During the semester, each person decided on what they valued most in society or their culture. My cultural artifact I decided to write about and tell my class about was the Cell phone. It has always been something that I used and liked especially with all this new technology and new cell phones coming out almost every other day!

            Most people have a hobby, beliefs, interests or something that represents them. Each person has something similar to one another but many are extremely different. These interests can also be defined as a cultural artifact. Cultural artifacts are things that speak out to a certain group of people within a community. People’s hobbies or interests can be very interesting or even very amusing. People that are born earlier in time about around the 1950’s or 1960’s wouldn’t even understand how kids work a computer, text and understand what kids are even saying because of the slang that is used. They wouldn’t know how to even handle it because the technology today is very overwhelming.

            There are several different things that I can consider my cultural artifact because of many interests and hobbies that I have. The one that stands out the most is the cell phone. Cellphones have been around for almost 40 years. The first cell phone was made by Motorola and was very expensive and popular. People wanted and had to be in on this first, newest piece of technology. Many other companies started making other cell phones which caused competition. The cell phones that were made were gigantic and all you could do was make a simple phone call. It had regular number keys and a speaker. Sebastian Rupley says in the article ‘What’s in your future?”  that  cell phones weren’t used just to sit on the phone and talk to friends about how there day at work is ; it was used for necessary purposes because of the cost that they were paying for it. People didn’t realize that the cell phone would become more enhanced and technologically based that is today.

            Cell phones today are highly overrated and overly priced. The technology of cell phones that it has become today is extremely talented and interesting to me. I think cell phones are interesting because how are these cell phones sending text, calls and picture messages from cell phone to cell phone. These devices these days have become extremely high tech that it is amazing what it coming to our world in the next couple years. The cell phones now could be the size of your palm and have touch screen, 3D, different colors, different sounds for different messages and so many other aspects. But besides that you can text message, go on the Internet; make calls and other things too. Cell phones are advancing because of how people expect more out of cell phones now. People are now buying cell phones like water. Somebody is always looking for a new cell phone every day.

Kids are growing up and are being spoiled with the technology there is today. I didn’t receive my first cell phone until I was a freshman in high school. Children now are getting cell phones as early as the age of six! I think that is insane. Kids shouldn’t be grown up and pretty much “thrown” into this technological community. Children and teenagers are ridiculously attached and addicted to cell phones; it’s amazing that kids even have social lives! All kids do is text, go on Facebook and check their e-mail. I am not one to talk because I am seriously addicted to my cell phone. I go over on the cell phone bill almost every month either on data or texting. I average about 10,000 text messages a month. That isn’t normal. And to be honest, I am on Facebook right now on my phone which is distracting me from doing my work!!!!!!

Teenagers are taking everything for granted now, especially cell phones. Back then, people didn’t really take cell phones for granted because they didn’t know how much it technology really could do and realized that it was an advantage on their part. Everything that gets into a teenagers hand is automatically an everyday, must have feature. They don’t realize how important it really is to keep in touch with their parents and use the cell phone for emergencies! Cell phones are pretty much used for socializing now and without them, teenagers and some adults wouldn’t know what to do.  I have learned from experience, when my mom took my cell phone away for about 2 hours one time, I felt naked without it. It was such a weird feeling. I kept looking all around for it and then remember that my mom took it away.

Technology has a weird way of affecting people. CNN states in an article that parents are also giving their kids their cell phones to play with when they are bored because it seems to amuse them. “Parents want to get more work done around the house so they give their child their cell phone, instead of giving them a toy or maybe watching a TV show.”

These cultural artifacts could be so many different types of things. Cell phones have put a different aspect on people’s lives and have changed the entire world with what they can do.

Motorola's First Cell phone

Nokia's First Cell Phone

IBM's First Cell Phone