The Smart Phones are easily linked to stereotypes, and for some people they can also be linked to rituals.  Stereotypes are a generalization of a type of person, they are very seldom correct and they can be either positive or negative in nature.  Rituals are the actions of these stereotypes; if you have a stereotype of a religious person then the rituals they would follow would be to preach to you, to offer to save your soul, and try to get you to commit to God.  That was a very basic description of how a stereotype and a ritual can be linked together. (Browne2005)

            The use of Smart phones is linked to the highly successful person, and to the high tech. society.  This causes people to want the phones just because it gives the appearance that they are successful in their lives.  This causes a positive stereotype, anyone who owns a Smart phone is considered successful, a leader, a professional, and someone who understands this high tech. technology. 

            The rituals that develop around a Smart phone can develop into a major issue.  There are people that have so much of their lives programmed into these phones that if there is a computer glitch with the phone or a lost or stolen phone happens that their whole lives are turned upside down.  These people are on the phones 24/7, they check their email, they do internet searches, and they have passwords hidden in them.  The loss of the phone means they have nothing, they have lost all contact information, their itinerary, their passwords, and for some their sense of being.  The phone must always be at their side or they don’t know how to function, they rely on the phone entirely too much.

 

            There are people that as soon as they get up they have to check the phone, they do this before any morning routine.  The use of the phone is a constant with these types of people; everything in their lives depends on them having access to the world through these phones.  This might seem silly to many people; however, I have seen people that were so devastated when their phone failed that they had a nervous breakdown over the loss.  The reaction I saw was actually worse than when the person had to deal with the death of her father. 

            You can see how stereotypes and rituals can be brought out by the simplest items, yet they can have devastating effects on people’s lives.  There is no way to stop these things from happening but people can be aware of how these issues affect them. Stereotypes happen to everyone, they can be right and they can be wrong; people need to understand this and be willing to accept either scenario.  The rituals that people fall into can be good and they can be bad, the people need to be aware of the rituals and understand how these rituals affect their lives.  They also need to be prepared if for some reason they can’t follow their normal rituals, how that will affect them and deal with the results.

References

Browne, Ray.  Profiles of Popular Culture, The University of Wisconsin Press.  Copyright 2005.