Telenor Xpress 1 - 2001

Kids on the move

"Hi mum. Got top marks on my last exam. Could you send me some money? CUL8R"

The message on my mobile was from my younger son. I had to look up what the last characters meant, and felt some comfort when I found that he had written "see you later" in this strange mobile language the youngsters of today use. Good, he wants to see me in person as well, not just tap me for money. . .
Time and again, I have heard people talk about how much more efficient you become with a mobile in your purse or pocket. I know my son has become far more efficient when it comes to squeezing some extra cash out of his loving mother! The mobile has saved him from the burden of having to ask for money face to face, or voice to voice. Not that I mind. As long as he keeps up with his schoolwork, he deserves a little extra allowance.

It's a gift
SMS, or Short Messaging Service, became widely available at more or less the same time as young people began equipping themselves with mobile phones. Last year Telenor registered that mobile users in Norway exchanged some 2.5 million text messages a day, and there is good reason to expect that the number will continue to rise. So, what are all these messages about?

"The content is not that important. The message has meaning in itself; it is a way of showing the recipient you're thinking of him (or her)," says the ethnologist Truls Erik Johnsen, who has completed a Master's degree on young people's use of mobile phones. Exchanging text messages confirms that you belong. It is a confirmation of identity and membership in a social group. At the same time, the text message also works as a kind of gift.

"If you send someone a text message, you expect a response. The message is a token of friendship or love, and it is important that the recipient acknowledges this symbolic gift and sends you a message in return. Don't wait too long before you answer, because that could be interpreted as a rejection of your gift," explains Johnsen. This 'gift theory' is one of the explanations as to why SMS has become so tremendously popular. Another explanation could be that SMS is a fairly inexpensive service compared with placing a phone call, although prices for the latter have also been cut substantially in Norway over the past few years.

Liberated from parental ears
Nowadays, a teenager without a mobile has become a rare species. According to Telenor PR Manager Esben Tuman Johnsen, about 90 percent of Norwegians between the ages 16 and 19 use mobile phones. Most of them pay for their use in advance, using pre-paid cards.

From a parent's point of view, the mobile has caused a huge change in the home. No more teenagers always blocking the phone line, as they did in the era of fixed line telephones. A mobile phone is a personal phone: when you call someone on their mobile, you expect the owner of the phone to answer. Not someone else, and definitely not a parent!
No wonder teenagers love their mobiles! Mobiles have become part of their liberated, independent image.

No more waiting in vain
Whether used for sending text messages or phone calls, mobile phones have changed the ways in which young people interact. They no longer sit at home waiting for a call; mobiles allow them to lead much more flexible lives. For instance, nowadays young people do not make detailed plans about where to meet, or even when to meet. They just call each other on their way, so to speak, confirming where the others are and what they are doing, and based on that, they decide whether or not to join them.

This means that time itself no longer has the same impact. The young people in Johnsen's research told him they did not make much effort to be on time for appointments. They just call and tell their friends they are delayed. Or that the meeting place has been changed, or whatever. "The opportunity to make decisions on the spot has made young people reluctant to divide their lives into time slots, as older generations are used to doing," says Johnsen.

It's all about communicating
Johnsen found that mobile communication has changed not only the way young people deal with planning and timetables, but also their friendships. "Mobile communication has given them the opportunity to keep in touch with more distant friends; people they usually meet only on holidays, for instance. Now they send frequent text messages during the year, while they used to only exchange Christmas cards. The mobile has extended their social arena," says Johnsen.

He thinks that killer applications in future may well involve enhanced possibilities for chatting and communicating over the radio waves. Call it UMTS, WAP, GPRS or whatever. Young people don't care that much about technology - just about what they can do with it. And what they want to do is to stay in touch with each other. "I believe we will see an explosion of different services on the mobile networks. However, I do not believe the most fancy ones will necessarily become the most popular. Social interaction is very important to young people. Services that make it easier to keep in touch with each other will be the ones they choose, " says Johnsen.

In the near future, you will be able to send photos and video clips via your mobile. Johnsen believes this is a service young people will adopt immediately. "A phone call is in itself a rather cold medium. People don't see each other. You are just a disembodied voice. When we can send video cards, messages with photos, etc., communications will become richer. And young people will love that," he adds.

Enhance your personal image . . .
Okay, so young people want to socialise, to be part of a group (or several), and they want to operate outside their parents' control. That's nothing new, is it? The new thing is that a tiny mobile phone has made all of this much easier for them. And of course, it has made them independent of time and place, at least to some extent. Now that is new. Another innovation is that the phone has become a way to project an image. "Young people personalise their mobiles. They choose a model that signals what kind of person they are, or want to be. They choose the ringing tones, and they pick up specialised logos for their displays from web sites," says PR Manager Esben Tuman Johnsen.

He should know. Telenor Mobil's web site offers the most amazing services for your mobile. You can subscribe to services that make you even more available, or that enable you to access news and other information from your mobile. These services have become very popular.

What about the phone models? Are they of any importance? "It varies. Some young people think it is important to have a particular model or brand. Others do not put that much importance on having the latest or most expensive model," says Tuman Johnsen.

The ethnologist agrees: "A mobile need not be of the most expensive or fancy kind." Ha! Tell that to my friends! I mean, if you go into a cafe and see a group of middle-aged women with their mobiles placed on the table (which a lot of us do, on the off chance one of our children send us a message . . .), and you take a closer look, you will see that almost all of us have 'vintage' models. In case you wonder why, it is because we inherit them from our children, who got the latest model for Christmas or as a birthday present.