Keep, D 2009 “The Portable Shrine: remembrance, memorial and the mobile phone”, Australian Journal of Communication. pp. 61-71.
The mobile phone has changed our way of life in which people communicate with one another due to globalization. Mobile technology has become more advance and capable of doing things beyond its initial intention. “The portable shrine, Remembrance, memorial, and the mobile phone” by Keep (2009) has illustrated how mobile phone affects people of expression and social experiences that reflect upon its personal and collective identity (p. 61). The journal further analyzed mobile phone as a diverse way to transmit the personal memories and view it in the form of images, videos, and text message that are encountered in a set of culture norms.
Keep stated, “Digital media has arguably promoted a culture where individuals rely on the memory capabilities of machines, rather than commit information to personal memory” (2009, p. 64). This expresses that mobile phone at the cultural level is presented by the adoption of text messaging, voice calls, mobile phone screensaver, images, and video. The conceptual argument that Keep addresses is that the mobile phone provides people new means of self- expression where individual operates in his or her way to obtain a sense of belongings or information. The role of the mobile phone in self-expression has also been studied from the cultural perspective. Additionally, Keep (2009) illustrates that; “it is our ability to retrieve our memories that is vital to our understanding of self” (p. 64). This indicates that by organizing the photos makes it easier for people to recall their memory. For instance, after a wedding, one will upload a photo to your computer and categorize it under your friends wedding. This is a shift from a traditional collective memory to a individualistic memory.
Furthermore, camera- phones has “shifted the people imagination in ways to capture, store and share our personal and collective memories” (Keep, 2009, p. 65). Camera- phones allow the process of identity and to memorize changes in which way people capture, store, and distribute personal photographs as storytelling (p. 66). People share personal photographs in many ways. Previously, people only recorded special events, however with the invention of a camera-phone, people are recording their personal experience from a common every day events to emotional events. For example, people send copies of photographs through the mail to families or loved ones, frame photographs for display in homes or workplaces that are loaded with emotional value (p. 66). Yet, with this action, relations to build and maintain social relationship are decreasing. On the other note, the author continues to portray that “mobile phone can present innovative ways for people across the globe to participate in plethora of cultural traditions and rituals” (p. 68). This means that mobile phone is becoming a crucial element of culture and rituals to construct meanings.
To conclude, the journal article demonstrates that mobile technology have an impact towards the way that people record and achieve its memories. This is done by creating and maintaining social relationship around us. Camera phones allow people to express and present themselves to the world. The author’s argument can be strengthened if he balances his essay with an opponent’s view. Oral story telling is a rare skill that can powerfully move an audience with its artistry in word choice and performance. However, recording of the same story by video will fail to capture the mood of the audience. At best, the mobile phone can help you remember the mood.
Since it is now so easy to record yourself and post your video on the internet, the invention of the mobile phone focuses more on the individual memory rather than the collective memory. In the past, photo albums brought family and friends together to share the memories at reunions. On the other hand, photo albums online allow people to view the pictures on one’s computer alone.
