MOBILE PHONE TO MOBILE IDENTITY

“Sir, your mobile number please!” That was the person at the billing desk of a shoe shop recently, when I had entered to pick up a pair of bathroom slippers. “I don’t want to be included in any promotional schemes”, I casually replied. “But this is not for any promotional scheme but just for registering our buyer’s identity. We collect all our customers’ mobile number simply for identification.” I realized that I had completely missed how my mobile phone number has started representing my identity, without notifying me. Many like me; might have missed this but mobile identity is already unique worldwide. Companies use mobile phone numbers as their primary customer identifier. The time has come to change the slogan from “I shop therefore I am” to “I have a mobile phone number therefore I am.”

Fig.1: I have a mobile phone number, therefore I am.

I, like many of you, thought that within the last one and half decade, mobile technology has grown so wonderfully. I bought my first mobile phone in 2001.  It was a Siemens c35i - a small one. You could even keep it in your shirt pocket. Though I never really understood the function of that “i” part, I was happy to be connected 24*7 with my family and friends. However, since then much water has flown. I remember the advertisements of those big TV remote like mobile phones on television, when mobile was just introduced in this country for primarily the rich. Once Jaspal Bhatti, a renowned TV comedian of 1980s, showed how people on the streets could be fooled with a TV remote if one can act as if s/he is carrying a mobile phone. Carrying a mobile phone was a status symbol in those days. People carrying mobile phones used to get extra attention by others. I remember in early 2000, while dining in Udupi restaurant at Munirka with a group of friends from JNU, we promised that one day we would come back to Udupi with our mobile phones and keep our phones on the table before calling the waiters to place the order.

Fig.2: Evolution of the Mobile Phone

In the last one and half decade, mobile phones evolved from big to small and back to big sizes. Presently, it has become a Palmtop Computer.  And I am sure that it is not the end of it, though I am not the right person to speak on the technological revolution of mobile phones, but the social meaning of it.

Fig.3: Today’s Smart Phones...

Let me share another recent interesting experience of mine. My wife had got a new smart phone last year. Consequently, she asked her mobile service provider to replace her old sim with a nano sim, which was compatible with her new phone. Before her new nano sim had been activated, the service for her old sim was stopped for a few hours. In the meantime, she realized that she has to urgently transfer the registration fee for attending an international conference. These days, as you know, transferring money to a particular account is no big deal. You don’t have to visit your bank for it and can do this anytime - day or night. You just have to log in to your bank account online, register your payee’s account. And then once the payee’s account is registered, you transfer the amount through a simple click. However, there is a catch. Once you create a payee account, the bank needs your final approval, which is done through a onetime password to be sent to your registered mobile number. After undergoing the whole process she realised that she couldn’t transfer the money unless her new sim was activated. We realised that day; that if you don’t possess a mobile phone number you simply don’t exist. You need a mobile phone number to pay your television cable bill, gas bill, electricity bill and many other bills; all being integral part of your everyday life.

But believe me; I have never looked at my mobile from that perspective. In the mid 90s, when mobile service had been introduced in this country, many of us thought that it would be an excellent mobile communication device. After I had finished my final BA examination in late 1989, I set out for a month long tour to Rajasthan with a group of friends from Siliguri. I remember; I was carrying a bunch of postcards with me. Whenever I reached a new place in Rajasthan, I dropped a postcard to my parents to inform them that I’m fine and alive. Even in early to mid 1990s, before the STD telephone booths became so popular all over India, I used to send telegraphic one liner to my parents, “reached Trivandrum safely stop Got hostel room.” 

The public telephone booths across India and landline telephone connections at our homes; even in small towns in 1990s, changed our lives completely.  We used to stand in the long queue at 11 in the night to avail the 75% discount on long distance calls. This was a common scene in front of all telephone booths in those days. Eventually, mobile telephone revolutionized our lives. The text messaging soon replaced all personal telegraphic messages. And a mobile telephone in your hand meant you were always connected to your family, friends and office. In 2005, when I was travelling back to Delhi from Udaipur, after reaching the airport, I was informed that the flight has been delayed by 5 hours. It took a second to inform my wife in Delhi not to wait for me for dinner. However, today in the age of smart phones you don’t even need to inform your wife, as she will automatically receive the update, if you already had shared your itinerary with her.

Fig.4: Telephone booths of early 1990s

So as you see, your mobile phone gradually progressed from a simple wireless telephonic device to a camera, your personal music player and finally to your personal secretary. You require this to book a cab, to find your way in a new city and definitely to make a bank transaction. But the element that I missed in a mobile telephone is the key in making this discussion today; is its capacity of personifying you. Its not just a telephone number any more, its your personal telephone number. The number eventually becomes the extension of your ‘self’ and represents your identity to the world system. A study "Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility" conducted by MIT in 2013 shows that its so easy to determine an individual's personal identity through analyzing cell phone data. Mobile phone is a device that you control. This means that it is easier to assert your identity both online and in the physical world—and perhaps harder for the fraudsters to imitate you.

Fig.5: Your Phone, Your Identity..

The society and system is continuously determining and producing identities and using those identities and simultaneously constructing our personal and public behaviours. Our identities as human beings have taken different directions and different shapes throughout the history of our evolvement as human beings. It could be our skin colour, our language, an ‘official’ seal or a piece of paper, or the way we write our names short or long. Now its a telephone number that travels with you all the time.