What Does Cell Phone Ethnographic Research Teach Us About Tiny House Design?
On the surface this video from TED will seem completely out of place on a tiny house design blog. But after you watch it and reflect I think you’ll agree it’s one hundred percent spot on topic. The guy in the video is Jan Chipchase, a researcher that uses ethnographic/anthropologic research techniques to uncover key underlying truths about people. No he’s not conducting cell phone surveys he’s digging much deeper; he’s conducting real research.
Ironically one of the positive benefits of consumerism, yes there is one, is that large companies fund this kind of research so they can stay ahead of the design curve. Luckily the high level results of larger studies are often published publicly. The only draw back is that you have to know where to look and what your looking for to find them.
The cell phone industry tends to be one of the biggest proponents of this and generally sends ethnographers/anthrpologists into Asia and developing nations to study how people live because that part of the world is way ahead of the west in the adoption and usage of cell phone. That might come as a surprise but instead of building an enormous telecommunications grid developing countries are building wireless networks. It’s cheaper, more practical, and more easily adopted. So if you want to predict the future of cell phones, and possibly human behavior, you go to Asia and developing nations.
His research has uncovered some simple truths about people. The first is about what people carry on them and the high value people place in those things. It turns out that people carry keys, money, and a phone. That’s right, in all the cultures he’s studied, of all the things people posses, these three things are consistently at the top of the list. Keys give people access to safety (home), money gives people access for sustenance (food & drink), and phones allow people to ‘transcend space and time’, his words for communicate with distant people, complete tasks, etc. He’s also uncovered that people are beginning to shift how they define their personal identity from home and work to how they can be contacted. This might sound a little scary because it sounds like people are beginning to use their phone numbers as key labels of identity, like a name. But I digress…
I these things tie back to tiny house design and the tiny house movement in general because they validate assumptions like less is more and the value of portability. Since developing nations are unburdened by the trappings of American life we can more easily see what might be a more true view of social evolution in our modern, increasingly populated, increasingly impacted, yet tightly tied together world.
Another tangible home design element I came away with is that each family member living in a tiny house needs a small personal space to put the things they carry with them. Jan’s research found that in each home one particular place became the trusted spot each person placed the things they carry. Their most important possessions. Without a place designed specifically for this function people chose their own spot. If a spaces were designed into the cabinets I bet people would find and claim them. As I finalize the interior design of the Tiny Free House I’ll be sure to include little spots like this. I also suspect that each person should have a place (place to sit) to call their own.
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4 Responses to “What Does Cell Phone Ethnographic Research Teach Us About Tiny House Design?”
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The always insightful Jan Chipchase has a short and amazing essay up at Receiver, Vodafone’s blog on user experience and mobile technology, and it manages in just a few paragraphs to make not one but two startling but hard to refute arguments.
StoryBank – using mobiles to share stories in an Indian village. Jan Chipchase in receiver magazine, summer 2007
http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/small-objects-travel-further-faster
An Electromagnetic Nightmare In The Making!
Whenever I read a post or article glorifying and legitimizing the wonders of Cell Phone communication and the insidious and hazardous technology that makes it all possible, I SHUDDER. Of course I expect THAT from the establishment; I DO NOT expect it from anything associated with the small house movement which, in general, is ENLIGHTENED and a kindred spirit of green/organic/eco/health-minded/independent/ and as a redux of the best from hippie philosophy, often suspicious of the establishment. Please folks, do your own research and your own thinking on this critical topic. Back in the 70s, a prophetic book was written, The Zapping of America (out of print but still available). On Amazon you can find at least 3 current LANDMARK books on the dangers of cell phone technology. You can google countless articles with the key words (“cell phone” dangers) or (cell phones “health hazards”) The issue is not just using cell phones BUT the “electrosmog” that it creates and adds to. We already live in a sea of electromagnetic “pollution” – radar, radio, TV transmissions, military, taxis, police, ham, onstar, wireless and blue-tooth this ‘n that, HAARP (google if you’re not familiar with this issue) and the mindless expansion of cell phone technology may well be the straw that breaks the “camel’s back” – The proverbial tipping point that will push this world into a crisis of unmanageable proportions! Already there are reports on the possible connection between cell phone radiation and “sudden colony collapse” (Google)- the progressive dying off of vast numbers of BEES that become disoriented and are unable to find their way back to the bee hive, flying aimlessly till they drop dead from exhaustion. This IS A CRITICAL issue because 90% of food crops depend on bees for pollination! This is a classic example of a connection between electromagnetic pollution and The Environment – NOT just a connection to human health directly. What’s more, the issues are so COMPLEX, scientists don’t even know what questions to ask, much less formulate experiments to verify suspicions ( A wise man once said knowing what questions to ask is more important than the answers) For example, invariably the only issue that is asked is whether electromagnetic pollution causes or does not cause brain cancer (The answer is YES)- as if that were the ONLY issue! In fact there are countless others: how does elecrosmog effect higher brain function such as judgement, memoery, creativity etc, how does it effect sperm quality or the complex, subtle process of a developing fetus, could it be a co-factor in autism, increasing yearly at an alarming rate, or alzheimers, how does it effect other living species in the food chain. IN FACT, THERE IS EVIDENCE there are disturbing connections in ALL OF THESE areas to elecrtomagnetic pollution, but whose listening, who cares?! Convenience and a “GEE WHIZ” infatuation with technology on the one hand AND CORPORATE GREED on the other ARE the only driving forces. If we are to survive as a species we gotta do a hell of a lot BETTER!
Tom… respectfully I think you missed the point. This guy may be paid by big corporate but he is uncovering trends in human social development we can ALL USE.
I agree with you that this information came out of corporate greed, but when we use the information for good we in some little way we help offset the damage.
Think of it like information reuse and recycling. The hardwood pallets I’m making my tiny free house out of were probably cut from a deforested rain forest. I can either let them rot in a land fill or use them to build a house. If anyone learns anything from that project I’ve successfully offset the damage, albeit in a tiny way.
Suggestion… be positive. Negative energy only invites negative energy. Find the good and make positive progress for you and your community. Cheers!
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your response to my comment. But first, let me applaud you for your absolutely TERRIFIC, critically IMPORTANT, timely, SPOT-ON, comprehensive website – One of The BEST in this area and a cheerful antidote to the world we live in! I agree that my comment wasn’t a direct response to the points made in the article BUT I am disturbed that indigenous populations and third world nations are now being SNOOKERED by the cell phone industry without full disclosure regarding the long-term implications of their adopting this technology. I am NOT a luddite, but I believe in “appropriate” technology, defined as any technology with little or no downside and a clearly demonstratable VALUE to society. Certainly, land-based telephones qualify (as well as a great many other items, in my opinion, most notably, THE INTERNET), Cell phones, offering only a measure of convenience over land-based with a HUGE downside, on many fronts, does not. Just my 2 cents worth but based on a lot of research and critical analysis.
Your suggestion “to be positive” taps into another huge topic much too large for an appropriate response in this context. I agree with you, on an emotional level. It is comforting and only human. BUT we live in a world with such a staggering array of problems and challenges, I am concerned that making an effort “to stay positive” as opposed to acknowledging the sheer horror and reality of our predicament, is too close to DENIAL, on a grand scale, which in my opinion, only serves to ENABLE the negative by default. All the positive “feel good” New Age attitudes and platitudes are a LUXURY we simply can not afford until The House (out planet) is more or less in order. and the overall trend, on nearly all fronts as far as I can tell, is in the wrong direction and accelerating at an alarming rate! I don’t believe I am gratuitously and frivolously negative – I believe I AM JUST A REALIST!
There is a good reason why so many intelligent AND well-informed people believe, nevertheless, that there is “good reason” to be hopeful and positive (“Hope springs eternal”). The Human Mind can only embrace a relatively limited number of complex (negative) topics, while the rest, encountered piecemeal over many years, fade into a kind of fuzzy mental haze thereby creating the ILLUSION that our problems are limited and hence manageable afterall – thus there is good reason to feel positive. This is probably some kind of mental defense mechanism associated with our survival instinct and to keep us from feeling overwhelmed. Unfortunately, in my opinion, at this point in history, it does not serve us well. What is needed now is a kind of roller-coaster ride, intellectual Clearing House listing / showcasing all the major problems and challenges IN ONE PLACE where it can be scanned and mentally “processed” (acknowledged) within a relatively short time frame. This process would provide a paradigm shift in ones World View that might lead to meaningful change.
Here is a tiny glimpse of TOPICS, in no particular order, each a kind of trap door, into an alternate World View. GOOGLE is the key to opening each topic and this list is NOT even the tip of the iceberg! Chemtrails, Mad Cow Disaese, Water Flouridation Hazard & Mind Control, Forced Vaccinations, Codex, Project Bluebeam, Crop Circles, connected to project bluebeam, Election Rigging electronic voting machines diebolt (blackboxvoting.org), Food irradiation, genetic engineering of food hazard, terminator seed monsanto, unlawful use of emminent domain, Peal Oil, haarp, forfeiture laws, presidential directive 51, forced chipping digital angel, total information awareness, corporatism, rewilding, amero north american union, the creature from jekyll island federal reserve, national debt true imlications. Enough said.
Cheers!