Can we talk?
It’s not often that an institution publishes a piece of academic research that is not only lively and approachable to read, but also engages with subjects I’ve discussed many times before: mobile phones and gossip. Or, more precisely, Mobile Gossip:
“Gossip is, and always has been, good for us — essential to our social, psychological and even physical well-being. The mobile phone, by facilitating therapeutic gossip in an alienating and fragmented modern world, is helping us to cope, adapt and survive.”
Not only that, but this particular piece of research has revealed that men gossip as much as women (but talk more about themselves); gossiping on your mobile can be an antidote to the loneliness, isolation and alienation of modern urban life; and texting is an important way in which we can maintain contact with a wide social network (unless, like me, you habitually send text messages when drunk, in which case your social network may quite rightly tell you to stop bothering them).
In a sense, these findings are nothing new. However, they are perhaps aspects of the human condition that we don’t like to admit to ourselves. Gossip — the word even sounds slightly snide — is often seen as secretive and frivolous; men, in particular, resent being regarded as gossips; and no one likes to admit that they love to hear their phone beep into life because it gives them a feeling of being wanted, of being sought after (see also: Cristina Odone’s article in The Observer, from January of this year).
So this would all be rather life-affirming social research, if only the credit at the end of the article didn’t reveal that it was commissioned by BT Cellnet. Call me cynical, but I think they may have a somewhat vested interest in getting us to use our phones more frequently.