Resources / Ripples & Wipeouts

According to a New York Times magazine article, a little over half the world’s population, 3.3 billion people to be precise, has a cell phone.  This in turn means that there are still at least 3 billion people who do not have cell phones.  Cell phones have transformed the way we live.  Not only do cell phones let you make phone calls without using a traditional land line, you can now access google via text message (text your query to “google” [466453]) download music and video onto cell phones, and in some cases, check and send emails.  In other words, you are connected to the internet, and therefore the world, all the time. 

However, is this a good thing?  Dissenters say that this constant access makes it impossible to separate work from play. (I.e., if your blackberry rattles next to your head at 1 a.m. with an email from your boss, are you obligated to answer it then because technically you can?) On the other hand, a person could argue that cell phones and gadgets like blackberries and iphones offer access to important information, improve efficiency, and facilitate communication that would have been prohibitively expensive or impossible even ten years ago. 

It is an indisputable fact that cell phones have exponentially enhanced our ability to access information at the push of a tiny button on a tiny device no bigger than a deck of cards.  And the best part of this access—it is often quite cheap!  If you are a farmer in the developing world, a cell phone lets you check market prices on fruits and vegetables just moments before you complete a transaction with a buyer, to make sure that you maximize your profits.  If you live in India and try to find work as a bellhop helping customers load and unload their cars in front of a hotel, a cell phone lets you find out where the work is on any particular day. 

Because we live in a country where so many people have regular access to the internet and the latest and greatest technology, it’s hard as an American to imagine how transformational a cell phone can be.  Did you know that in Bangladesh, women in areas without access to landlines buy cell phones and then charge their neighbors a small fee to use them?  Seems pretty smart to me. 

I can’t imagine that cell phones are going to rid the world of poverty.  However, a cell phone does create access to global resources.  This in turn creates a valuable opportunity for individuals and families to increase efficiency, productivity, and most importantly, profit in their business ventures.  Cell phones are not a perfect solution to poverty, but they sure are a step in the right direction towards creating opportunity for self-improvement.

To read the New York Times magazine article, click here.

--AMI