There are a lot of aspects of contemporary culture that can been seen as being Panoptic in some way and one of these is Mobile Phones. Cellular mobile technology has developed so much over the last decade that about 85% of adults in the United Kingdom own at least one mobile phone. Mobile phones consistently transmit information to several different places at any one time and this information can be accessed by authorities with relative ease if considered necessary.
"This surveillance is based on a system of permanent registration"(Foucault in Thomas. J, 2000, p.61)
Every time a phone is used for communication it will need to send data through a series of checkpoints, including mobile transmitters and satellites, before being received by the specified contact. At each point of the journey the information will be logged as a point of reference and important information about the data will be kept such as the time, location and originating mobile phone number. The majority of phone users will be aware of this fact to some degree but it is a necessary part of owning a mobile phone and having wireless contact with others.
"Visibility is a trap."(Foucault in Thomas. J, 2000, p.64)
Knowing this does not mean that any personal information about mobile communication is necessarily accessed but it means that there is never a moment when it can not be. The possibility of access at any time can modify behaviour and content of something as innocent as a phone call by creating institutional gaze. Even the possibility of "visibility" can cause self regulated behaviour in text messages and mobile conversations.
Mobile phones can also be considered Panoptic in the way that they change personal interaction. Although this example doesn't fit perfectly to a Panoptic description it does work on some levels.
"Two ways of exercising power over men, of controlling their relations, of separating out their dangerous mixtures."(Foucault in Thomas. J, 2000, p.62)
Talking over a mobile phone creates a separation that a normal conversation would not. There is little reason to meet in person when a phone call can be made from anywhere to anyone so the prospect of further development of malicious plans or unwanted topics of conversation is stunted, not to mention the fact that most phone calls can only be made from one individual to another which eradicates the possibility of excess group meetings for the same reason. Separation is a key aspect of the Panopticon ideology but so is a lack of communication so the analogy does not work perfectly in that sense other than the fact that it creates a very different kind of communication.
Aside from controlling malicious possibilities, mobile communication very generally manipulates social interaction.
"But there was also a political dream of the plague, which was exactly its reverse: not the collective festival, but strict divisions"(Foucault in Thomas. J, 2000, p.62)
The change from group meetings to sets of individually distanced conversations and messages is a big difference to the ideology of the 'festival' in which large groups of people congregate. Essentially this creates a society which is much easier to govern; an important aspect of Panopticism. With everybody physically separated the institution is under a lot more control, getting closer to the idea of docile bodies to work with.
On top of separation, the institutions have control of what should be considered socially 'normal'.
In contemporary society there is nothing irregular about a mobile conversation from anywhere in the country to anywhere else.
"The Panopticon is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad"(Foucault in Thomas. J, 2000, p.65)
Mobile phones alter the average dyadic of a conversation because visibility is a prominent aspect in face to face communication. Aspects of body language and reactions help to communicate emotion and understanding across a conversation and the introduction of a longer distance conversation completely changes the distinction of normality in communication. Defining "normality" is key in Panopticism as it gives a basis and a justification for control.
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