The Promise of Cell Phones

In this article I examine the deployment of cell phones in two different contexts. The first is the use of cell phones in a protest movement in the Philippines that resulted in the resignation of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. I then look at the marketing and consumption of cell phones in the (over)developed world, focusing on the USA. I argue that the Philippine protest movement, known as People Power II, indicates the medium's progressive potential, while the marketing of cell phones in the USA indicates the medium's reactionary potential, or, borrowing a term from Paul Virilio, the cell phone's potential as `technological nanny'. The comparison tries to steer between two orientations in cultural studies — which I characterize as the optimism of technoutopianism and the pessimism of techno-phobia — in order to appreciate the political potential of cell phones, in particular, and technology in general.