Maitland A&H Project Blog Entry 3 - Moving Along

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We are moving along well with our Telephone Museum project – Joseph is continuing to delve into the reasons that payphones still exist in the US today, while I am continuing to research the social implications of cellular technology and its more contemporary technological evolutions.

We discussed deliverables in class, and I think I will be utilizing a basic report format to disseminate my information on the evolution of cellular technology but will also try to create an interactive timeline that can house the social implications of the technology in an easy to read manner. I think pairing a basic report with the interactive “clickable” timeline will help articulate this dense wealth of information in the most palatable and interesting way. Some websites I am considering for the timeline are:

I have a pretty full-fledged view of the evolution of cellular technology, and in working on the social implications, I have a few branches I am focusing on to make a more full-bodied view of the social effects of cellular technology altogether. One is the effect of phone use on society as a whole – which is the aspect I am most excited about. An article from 1990 describes the rising phone usage as daunting, and that society “may anticipate an increase in mobile drug dealing, prostitution, con games and fraud, particularly computer fraud.”[1] Now moving into the more modern developments, an article from 2008 argues that rather than completely negative and scary, technology has actually shifted social order and allowed for communicative opportunities that may not have been available without these evolutions.[2] Seeing the view change from dangerous and unknown to opportunistic and life-changing is just one of the interesting themes that have emerged throughout my research. These are some of the readings I am pulling from: 

  • Campbell, Scott W., and Yong Jin Park. "Social implications of mobile telephony: The rise of personal communication society." Sociology compass 2, no. 2 (2008): 371-387.
  • Feigenbaum, James, and Daniel P. Gross. Automation and the fate of young workers: Evidence from telephone operation in the early 20th century. No. w28061. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2020.
  • Jarratt, Jennifer, and Joseph F. Coates. "Future use of cellular technology: Some social implications." Telecommunications Policy 14, no. 1 (1990): 78-84.
  • Lipartito, Kenneth. "When women were switches: Technology, work, and gender in the telephone industry, 1890-1920." American Historical Review 99, no. 4 (1994): 1075-1111.

I think this will be a lot of information to disseminate, so I plan to break it down into 1) the general evolution of cellular technology 2) the social implications of this technology for jobs/factories and 3) the social implications of this technology on society in its usage and communicative properties. The timeline will break down the tangible technology while providing hyperlinked information on social implications where they fit within the evolution. I am super interested in making a timeline or digital aspect for this project – we chatted with Dr. French about digital history, and I think a technological history like cellular history would be a great subject for a digital history project. I want to stretch those muscles a bit.

Overall, I think this information would be a worthwhile addition to the Maitland A&H Telephone Museum timeline. They have a ton of cool “gadgets” and artifacts at the site, but there is not a lot of information tying it to how people used it or were affected by it. With Joseph’s contributions about payphones and their usage and these social implications and contemporary evolutions, the museum could offer a very thorough but interesting look at cellular technology!


*Readings cited in post:

[1] Jarratt, Jennifer, and Joseph F. Coates. "Future use of cellular technology: Some social implications." Telecommunications Policy 14, no. 1 (1990): 78-84.

[2] Campbell, Scott W., and Yong Jin Park. "Social implications of mobile telephony: The rise of personal communication society." Sociology compass 2, no. 2 (2008): 371-387.

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