Cell Phones, Sharing, and Social Status in African Society

This article kind of illuminates the differences between American and African society and how different cultures view cell phones, sharing, and their social status. For example, in the Smith claims that cell phones represent a level of economic achievement that is out of reach to most Nigerians. Which I found to be profound since just about everyone here has a cell phone, even children. In fact, I got my first cell phone before I was in high school, and frankly I thought nothing of it. However, when I sit and reflect on, I do see  how having a cell phone could be a status symbol. Back then, everyone thought it was cool to have one, and now as technologies advance cell phones that were popular when I first got mine such as the Motorola Razor are now obsolete when talking about the iPhone. So I do see a correlation but in contemporary society no one really associates a cell phone with social status, or if they do it is pretty rare. Even someone with a lot of money that has an older phone or phone that isn't as popular like an Android or IPhone isn't deemed poor or stingy with their money; they could have just lost their old phone, waiting for an upgrade, or content with the phone they are using. However, I guess with such a high emphasis placed on the phones' that the Nigerian people have they are a lot more likely to not loose it. Another interesting thing that I read was about text messaging being the cheaper means of communication, and how people would deem people who texted, and called far less, as cheap/stingy and/or did not care about the relationship as much. In America, that notion is totally different; most people prefer to text message rather than call, not because it saves money, but because it is more convenient in most cases and you don't have to deal with speaking to another person on the phone- its direct and gets straight to the point.