Hey and welcome back to my blog!
This blog is going to explore the options for the topic of the major project, and will include the final decision.
What topics have been chosen?
Drugs
'My Phone!'
Why Drugs?
The topic of drugs has always been of interest, including reading up on the effects they have on the body. The topic hits quite close to home as a family member is currently suffering with addiction. Researching into this topic could help gain a wider understanding of the effects that drugs have and what they do to the body, why they are so addictive and why the person choses to do what they do - or if they even have a choice in that or if it is because their body/mind is telling them that they 'need' it.
The 'glorification' of drugs
Originally, there was a plan to explore into the 'glorification' of drugs in a modern society, particularly looking at the way the media/pop culture portrays drug taking. Animated TV shows such as 'The Simpsons', 'Family Guy' and 'South Park' all contain drug references portrayed comically, as well as films including 'The Hangover (2009)' and 'The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)' pictured in figure 1 (IMDb, n.d. The Wolf of Wall Street).
Music also plays a large part in shaping drug culture. Drug and alcohol references can be found in a wide range of genres, supporting the
Figure 1: The Wolf of Wall Street (IMDb, n.d.). glamorised attitude to drug culture (RoyalLifeCentres, 2019). The song 'Superbass' by Nicki Minaj (2010) is a particular example of a popular song which includes drug references. Some of the lyrics include "he be blazin' up" and "he cold, he dope, he might sell coke" which are clear drug references. This song was extremely popular with friends at school, there are memories of singing this song on the fields - at the age of 11 - without knowing what the lyrics actually meant.
After speaking with tutors, a decision was made to step away from the ‘glorification’ of drugs as this is not an accurate depiction, but instead to look at drug taking in the past, in the present and to think about what it could be like in the future. Drugs evolve to suit the social landscape of that time – for example, modern day drugs are quick fixes to suit the fast-paced environment of the modern day.
Drugs: The past, present and future of drug taking
Drugs have been around for hundreds and thousands of years and are made, distributed and used across the world.
Substances have been taken by people of all ages throughout history, for example opium poppy seeds have been found at the Neolithic settlements (Stone Age) in Europe and the Middle East (Critical Issues, 2020). In Victorian times, opium was widely used by men, women and children with the aim to cure a wide range of ailments (Berridge, 1999).
Following British importation of opium to China in the 1760s, the use and production of the drug in China has drastically increased. After the failure of Opium Wars (between the United Kingdom and the Quing Empire in China), China had to open the door to a free-flowing opium trade, which resulted in social and public health consequences. Today, drug abuse is linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS and drug-related crimes (Lu, Fang and Wang, 2007).
In the 20th century, there were attempts to ban the use of drugs with concerns raised about the effects of drugs on young people. After the First World War, the first laws to control drug use were introduced to Britain after concern about the use of cocaine by troops on leave from the Western Front (Critical Issues, 2020).
'My Phone!'
Mobile phones are considered the ‘most important device’ to access the internet.
"78 percent of adults saying they could not live without it" - (Ofcom, 2018).
Some statistics found when researching include:
Adults in the UK “check their smartphones, on average, every 12 minutes of the waking day. Two in five adults (40%) first look at their phone within five minutes of waking up, climbing to 65% of those aged under 35” - (Ofcom, 2018).
“Mobile phones can perform a wide range of tasks that enhances lives, including work-related tasks, social media and communication, and entertainment such as listening to music, watching films and online gaming" - (Hiley, 2022).
Mobile phones have the capability to go back in time and find out what an individual was doing that day or how much money they had spent that day through applications such as photos or mobile banking, which makes mobile phones accessible to people with different needs, even including children.
“68 percent of UK children ages 3-15 use a mobile phone” - (Hiley, 2022).
A phrase that the student has come across a lot whilst researching into mobile phone use is
'My life is on my phone'
This phrase is agreeable to an extent because, quite often, individuals live their reality through their mobile phone or camera lens. Going to a concert is a great example of this; the amount of mobile phones that are held up in the air recording the artist, rather than being in the moment and watching it through the individual's eyes. Every one is guilty of this, but it hinders the experience as people are too worried about getting the right angle or fitting the whole image in the frame, rather than creating a memory that will last a lifetime in the individual's mind.
Technology has advanced dramatically since the first mobile phone was released in 1983. Figure 2 (Mobilecollectors, 2013. Motorola DynaTAC 8000X) shows a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X which was the first ever hand held cellular phone. Figure 3 (Apple, 2023. iPhone Pro Max) shows the latest iPhone to be created in 2022.
So many questions can be asked about the future of mobile phones/technology. How advanced can things get? What is a futuristic mobile phone? Will artificial intelligence (AI) take over?
Figure 2: Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (Mobilecollectors, 2013).
Figure 3: iPhone 14 Pro Max (Apple, 2023).
So, which topic is going to be the focus of the Major Project?
Drumroll please...
The topic chosen for the major project is
'My Phone!'
Why is this the chosen topic?
‘My Phone!’ was chosen to be the topic for the major project because of the relevance it has, not only to the student’s life, but to society as a whole, with the aim being to research into how prevalent mobile phones are in a modern society, how the use of mobile phones has changed over time and researching into what the future potential of mobile phones could be. The past, present and future of drug taking would have been an interesting topic to research into, but to create four original final images would have been difficult due to this topic being explored often in industry.
Now a topic has been chosen, what is the aim for the Major Project?
To put it short, the aims for the major project include:
To produce 2 final images, 2 final moving images and a show reel
To gain a better understanding of mobile phone use within different age groups
To discuss different opinions about the future of mobile phones and how far technology could go
What this research project is aiming to do, is to explore mobile phone usage and to see if perhaps age or gender can influence this. A 2016 study completed by 6 university students at Bonn University, suggested that age influences what mobile phones are used for and gender influences how long the phone is used for (Andone et al., 2016). A lot of the research already been done focuses on the statistics of mobile phone use rather than the psychology behind it: answering questions about why people become so attached to these devices.
Primary research will be produced in order to fill in the gaps, by underpinning the psychological needs of mobile phone use across a variety of age groups and to explore different opinions of the future potential of mobile phones.
The vision for the end of the project is to produce two still images and two moving images in the style of a campaign/advertisement intended to be viewed by anyone who owns a mobile phone. It will be in this style to make the audience reflect on the use of mobile phones through different statements/subtopics: Glued to your mobile phone, if only you could see inside my phone, the future of mobile phones and – the final statement is still to be confirmed depending on the results from the primary research undertaken. Each final still/moving image will be titled with a different statement/subtopic that reflects it.
Thank you for coming back and reading this week's blog!
Until next time,
Alysha :)
Reference List
Andone, I., Blaszkiewicz, K., Eibes, M., Trendafilov, B., Montag, C., and Markowetz, A. (2016) How Age and Gender Affect Smartphone Usage [Online]. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306263450_How_Age_and_Gender_Affect_Smartphone_Usage (Accessed 29 November 2022).
Apple. (2023) Buy iPhone 14 Pro [Online]. Available at https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-14-pro/6.7-inch-display-128gb-deep-purple (Accessed 3 January 2023).
Berridge, V. (1999) Opium and the People, London, Free Association Books.
Critical Issues. (2020) Substance Misuse and Young People, Oxon, Routledge.
Hiley, C. (2022) UK mobile phone statistics, 2022 [Online]. Available at https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/studies/mobile-statistics/ (Accessed 3 January 2023).
IMDb. (n.d.) The Wolf of Wall Street [Online]. Available at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993846/ (Accessed 3 January 2023).
Lu, L., Fang, Y., and Wang, X. (2007) Drug Abuse in China: Past, Present and Future [Online]. Available at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10571-007-9225-2 (Accessed 11 October 2022).
Mobilecollectors. (2013) DynaTAC 8000X [Online]. Available at https://www.mobilecollectors.net/phone/3531/motorola-dynatac+8000x (Accessed 3 January 2023).
Ofcom. (2018) A decade of digital dependency [Online]. Available at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2018/decade-of-digital-dependency (Accessed 3 January 2023).
RoyalLifeCentres. (2019) Drug Glorification in Pop Culture: The Addiction Behind Your Television Screen [Online]. Available at https://royallifecenters.com/drug-glorification-in-pop-culture-the-addiction-behind-your-television-screen/ (Accessed 11 October 2022).
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