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« "The Craft of Connection" and a firm's ability to exploit the things they know | Main | Structure versus Content in Network Analysis »
15 February 2007
I recently came across another interesting news article about the adoption of mobile phones in developing countries. This particular article focuses on mobile phone adoption from the perspective of companies who are selling mobile phones in India. These companies are scrambling to make low-cost phones that will endure dust, heat, and long periods of time without recharging. What strikes me most about this article are the lengths that people living under impoverished conditions will go to connect, and stay connected, with their social networks. Having little else, they are still willing to spend a large amount of their income on a single piece of social technology. Yet, from the social support perspective, this makes perfect sense. If people in India are anything like those studied in America, they exchange different kinds of support with different kinds of ties, and mobile phones enable them to stay connected to a variety of ties like never before. On the other hand, while Americans often use their networks to get ahead, people in India may need them just to get by.
Posted by Jeff Boase at February 15, 2007 12:04 AM