Play as you go

More and more, were absorbed and entertained by mobile devices. Rhodri Marsden of The Independent explores the ever-evolving world of play on the go.

Mobile technology wasnt always fun. Some of us are old enough to remember seeing, for the first time, a chap sitting on a train with a phone the size of a brick clamped to his ear. Back then, being on the mobile meant staying in touch with the office, striking deals on the move and little else. Its the same with laptops the first hulking brutes that were deemed portable mostly contained spreadsheets and were operated by people in neatly pressed suits. But while we still take our work with us, taking our play with us has become far more important.

Deprive us of our gadgets, and its not the lack of email we curse its the fun we cant have. The games we cant play to fill those idle moments. The pictures we cant snap, the videos we cant shoot, edit and share. Then there are the connections with friends we cant enjoy, the music we cant collect, cue up and listen to. These mini-adventures inspired by gadgets and apps not only remind us that lifes there to be enjoyed, but also give us a sense of achievement. In essence, technology helps us make the most of our time on the planet.

A lot of this is down to the connections technology lets us make. We socialise to survive. If we dont, our numbers up. Our compulsion to mix with others is part of our psyche, and while we mostly use mobile technology when were on our own, its also become a deeply social activity. From video calls that bring us closer together, to apps like Foursquare that help us hook up in the real world, mobility enables shared experiences and creates unexpected collisions as we play in the digital sphere.

At Barcelonas Club Sonido you can see this kind of shared spontaneity at first hand. Projections on the walls are sourced from sketches made in real time by clubbers on their phones using an app called Graffito: revellers are drawing, sharing, collaborating. Or take a plunge into the world of Minecraft, a hugely popular game where players work together to create and explore virtual worlds.

Are friends electric?

While mobile devices were once used only to demonstrate loyalty to your employer, theyre now used to demonstrate loyalty to friends, too. In Richard Harpers book Texture, the author talks about phones as gift givers: we send people something, they send something back. That reciprocity is very important, says Dr Gillian Symon, reader in organisational psychology at Birkbeck College, London, and some researchers consider this development very positive. Our gadgets let us capitalise on the love thats out there and that satisfaction boosts our own self-esteem.

Not only is it good for your self-esteem: youre in control. Mobile technology puts us in a position of power and we love it. In the hierarchy of needs, our desire to be in charge of the world around us is very high, says psychologist Dr Graham Jones. So the tools that make us feel in control pander to that basic need. Social media is a great example of this; if youre the first with news, or if you hold a secret that youre able to tell other people, you can sit back and bask in the kudos.

As innovators come to realise how we love that feeling, so theyve gone out of their way to seduce us by making us feel more important. Media artists like James Darling use real-time data drawn from events relevant to the viewer to make personally tailored films; news organisations such as The Guardian offer us their data to play with, explore and manipulate. Even the ubiquitous touchscreen interface gives us that sense of control its real hands-on involvement. And as voice recognition tools improve, well continue to feel that power as we communicate directly with technology to change the world around us.

More than a game

There are few better examples of the combination of communication, play and adventure than the world of gaming. Technology that makes things fun and enjoyable panders to our desire to have a happy life, says Dr Jones, while the boring stuff inevitably takes a back seat in the competition for our minds. The all-encompassing distraction of games is well known from Space Invaders to Angry Birds but its not all about clicking furiously for high scores. Simulation games, from Football Manager of old to todays Fantasy Fund Manager, give us experiences increasingly akin to reality, and some academics believe that the optimism, bonding and productivity we revel in during gameplay can bring about positive change in the real world.

In a talk at the Technology Entertainment and Design conference (TED), games designer Jane McGonigal got a laugh from the crowd by suggesting that we increase the time we spend playing online games each week from 3 billion to 27 billion hours to help solve the worlds problems. But she was making a serious point: why not transpose the positive attitudes so prevalent amongst gamers to battle obesity, climate change and world conflict? McGonigals titles, such as Superstruct and World Without Oil, demonstrate that gaming is more than distraction.

The trainer hunt grabbed attention, but the applications of location-sensing extend way beyond selling shoes. If you want a friend to receive a message the moment they arrive at the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye or the Kremlin, its now possible with apps like JotYou. An app called My Grove combines location-based gameplay with an environmental message, as you plant imaginary trees around your town to offset CO₂ emissions. Parallel Kingdom is a multiplayer game that blends online communication, mobility and real life not only can you play it on the move, but your movement becomes part of the game; online and offline social lives collide and start to merge. Every gamer is familiar with the thrill of adventure in virtual worlds, but location sensing brings those adventures to life real life.

Cut to the chase

More and more, all this content is rapidly fired at us. In the next few years, our challenge will be to filter through this mass of information, wherever we may be, and make choices about what to consume, and when. Those who develop our entertainment and gaming opportunities are well aware of this, and are tailoring their output accordingly. News sources are turning to infographics experts like David McCandless to transform their output into visuals. Information literally just pours into you, McCandless says. Theres a demand for condensed information in visual form to suit fast-moving modern minds. Meanwhile, in the world of sport, excitement rating systems such as Thuuz let us skip the scoreless draws and head straight for the penalty shoot-outs.

Theres a big debate about whether bite-size culture is good for us whether the baubles and flashing lights are replacing more comprehensive information but its almost a moot point. Thats 21st century connectivity. And if were trying to make the most of our lives, one obvious strategy is simply to cram in as much as possible.

We all have a fundamental urge to reach out, engage and explore, and mobile technology is helping us do just that. Its bound up with our identity, says Dr Symon. In our research, we termed it the connected self. If youre connected, people are trying to get hold of you, youre in demand, youre knowledgeable, youve got things to contribute.

Mobility reminds us that theres a life out there to be lived. So lets get out there and live it.

_{This article is based upon research from Nokias Future Trends team, which tracks emerging trends in mobility
Illustrations by Robbie Brownshoes}