Ethnicity and cellphone use

March 13, 2006 7:22 AM

I've noticed many hispanic youths in my neighborhood making use of their cellphone's "walkie talkie" feature. I have seen only a handful blacks doing this, and no whites or asians. Also, I've noticed several whites using their cellphones in a "hands free" fashion, employing some sort of earpiece/microphone. However, I have seen no blacks, asians, or hispanics doing this. So my question - are these real trends, or false conclusions based on my limited experience?
posted by kenoshakid to Society & Culture (24 answers total)

False conclusions. Although (and this does not make your conclusion any less false) there is a pre-paid cellphone company that markets a push to talk walkie talkie phone and advertises with rappers, which would possibly encourage young people of any race to use them. Also the push to talk phones are very annoying and teenagers are annoying which would lead them to want to use the beeping and booping phones (this is also a false conclusion, but one that certainly feels more correct).

Other than that a very false, not true and way too small of a sample size conclusion.
posted by Divine_Wino at 7:29 AM on March 13, 2006

I see black professionals using the bluetooth earpiece more than whites. I've only seen white guys hold their cell phone in front of their face in 'walkie talkie' fashion. I only see asians at the Math Club.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 7:29 AM on March 13, 2006

Definitely not race-based. I have seen whites, blacks, and Latinos using the "walkie talkie" and "hands free" functions.
But not Asians...maybe you are onto something....
posted by zonkout at 7:30 AM on March 13, 2006

I mostly see black youths (and grown-ups) using the walkie-talkie feature...because in my urban area, I mostly see black youths (and grown-ups).

As far as this sort of urban sociology goes, have you checked out this AskMe post as well?
posted by availablelight at 7:47 AM on March 13, 2006

When I (a whitey) had a cellphone that had a walkie-talkie function I used it all the time. Now that I have a cellphone without that function, which does have an Mp3 player, you can see me with headphones on all the time.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:00 AM on March 13, 2006

I see drug dealers using the walkie talkie function. And their girlfriends. To the extent that dealing is a racially specialized occupation in my town, there's a correlation. The dependent variable here is a need to talk to twenty people in real time and promise all of them you're "just 20 minutes away" with their stuff, or to look like that's what you are doing so everyone thinks you are the next Scarface.

Those thingies stuck on the sides of peoples' heads are f-ugly. They are double f-ugly on shaved heads.

I read a story somewhere in which a guy did a decent sounding survey to discover that some huge percentage of people "talking on cell phones" are pretending, just to look busy and important. I believe it.
posted by fourcheesemac at 8:17 AM on March 13, 2006

I did notice in Mexico a large number of people were using their phones in push-to-talk walkie talkie style. I figured they [mostly kids] were using it to a) annoy adults and/or b) save money since the walkie-talkie time does not count against the cellular phone minutes.

On this side of the border I see people of all ethnicities use walkie-talkie features and I assume for the same reasons.

And it seems like everyone these days wants a bluetooth earpiece like Uhura had in Star Trek. Business people look the silliest.
posted by birdherder at 8:29 AM on March 13, 2006

Using the walkie-talkie function is synonymous with being a redneck where I come from (northern Florida).
posted by saladin at 8:31 AM on March 13, 2006

I see more blacks with bluetooth headsets than whites. I see a LOT more white people using two-way walkie-talkie type communication than any other group.

It seems like it'd be an interesting sociological study...
posted by jeversol at 9:16 AM on March 13, 2006

3 years ago I always noticed that in the vast numbers of foreign countries I've been to (... Mexico, Italy, and Miami, Florida) the locals used text messaging all the time. That's changed since then, but it was interesting at the time.
posted by ZackTM at 9:23 AM on March 13, 2006

I've also noticed a correlation between race and walkie-talkie cellphone usage. I see blacks use their cellphones in this fashion quite frequently, while I rarely, if ever observe whites using that functionality.
posted by matkline at 9:29 AM on March 13, 2006

People want to be on the same network as their friends, as they tend to get free or cheap in-network calls. Some networks have more exclusive or prevalant features. (Walkie-talkie mode, etc.) Maybe you're just seeing technology spread within local social groups.
posted by Tubes at 9:45 AM on March 13, 2006

My recollection of seeing people do this doesn't ring any racial bells. So I'm thinking it's a false conclusion - probably confirmation bias.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:02 AM on March 13, 2006

I've noticed that Push-To-Talk seems more common among blue collar workers. I never noticed a racial bias, though.
posted by I Love Tacos at 10:08 AM on March 13, 2006

Response by poster: Disclosure :

I live in a majority-hispanic neighborhood. However, I spend most of my time in other parts of the city, and have noticed the same trends.

Either way, I'm willing to accept the walkie-talkie thing as "something the kids are doing."

However, I haven't seen any age correlation with the earpiece thing.
posted by kenoshakid at 10:09 AM on March 13, 2006

(most of the push-to-talk users I know work as police, construction, maintainance, landscapers, etc... all jobs where *BEEP* (BLAH BLAH BLAH) is an acceptable noise.
posted by I Love Tacos at 10:10 AM on March 13, 2006

False conclusions, in my experience. FYI I live in an area with a lot of hispanic, asian, white, and black folks.

I generally only see males who are in professional/sales jobs, (of every race) using the hands-free earpiece.

Push-to-talk use isn't quite as nuts as it was a couple of years ago, when everyone under the age of 30 seemed to be using it. Now it's just teenagers, mostly, of all races.
posted by desuetude at 10:24 AM on March 13, 2006

Another data point: The only people I've ever seen using push-to-talk have been young black males riding the Metro. But this probably has as much to do with my own travel patterns as it does with actual usage trends.
posted by fermion at 10:48 AM on March 13, 2006

I gather that the PTT function is very commonly used by work crews of various kinds (construction, etc.) and there might appear to be some demographic correlation based on who is working in these types of trades in a particular area. As for teenagers, I don't know. I think Tubes has the right idea.
posted by Songdog at 11:09 AM on March 13, 2006

I have noticed the walkie-talkie function being used mostly by the young hip-hop type crowd in my neighborhood. There is certainly some racial correlation there. God, I hate that function. The shrill beep, followed by some idiot yelling into his phone. The walkie-talkie mode was created by Satan. The only thing worse would be if the cellphone companies somehow implanted the microphone into my head so these jokers would actually be screaming into my ear, rather than it just seeming that way.

I have noticed the hands-free headsets mostly among more professional-looking people. The fact that sometimes you can't see the microphone makes them look like crazy people, of which we also have an ample supply (I live in NYC).
posted by lackutrol at 11:28 AM on March 13, 2006

I have lived in several cities / states with varying demographics and cell phone providers; I think it has more to do with promotions at the time as well as overall coverage; For instance, I can appreciate the PTT = Red Necks, as when I was in highschool, Nextel was the only cell phone provider with reasonable coverage, hence everyone had it (rural Michigan.) In Atlanta, there seemed to be a fairly even distribution, as providers / coverage is ubiquitous. I seem to recall more people using handsfree devices in Boston, than any other place I've visited / lived. Does this have something to the education level and health conscious population that habitates Boston? One can only speculate.

Oh, one last piece of anecodotal evidence, I recall seeing Asians with ear pieces and the like much earlier than the rest of us.
posted by AllesKlar at 12:05 PM on March 13, 2006

When I was in high school in the suburbs of NYC, the walkie talkie function was used by kids who were emulating the crappy hip hop and rims type of black culture, which was actually about equal numbers of black kids and white kids. Shouting "OOOOOOOHHHH" at each other, in real life or on the phone, was an acceptable form of conversation.

Living in NYC these 2 1/2 years, the only time I remember hearing the walkie talkie function is at a job where people also carried actual walkie talkies.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 2:09 PM on March 13, 2006

ive noticed that stupid jerks use the one way and pip-squeak moonshiners use the other.
posted by Satapher at 5:14 PM on March 13, 2006

The reason that blacks, hispanics, and whites who wish that they were black seem to use walkie talkie more in non-work situations is that they probably do. Boost mobile is a pre-paid (no contracts or need for good credit required) cell phone service that exploits hip hop culture in their advertising.

"When I was in high school in the suburbs of NYC, the walkie talkie function was used by kids who were emulating the crappy hip hop and rims type of black culture, which was actually about equal numbers of black kids and white kids. Shouting "OOOOOOOHHHH" at each other, in real life or on the phone, was an acceptable form of conversation."

Exactly what I was thinking. I have had walkie talkie capabilities for over two years now, but my friends and I quickly discovered that the feature is highly inappropriate in most settings (especially in public). For these kids who think that life is a rap video, however, drawing this kind of attention to one's self does not seem to bother them in the least.

More so than the unusually high walkie talkie use among this demographic, myself and others have noticed that even during regular phone calls, the phone is operated in much the same way that a cup and string style "phone" would be. When you want to say something remove the phone from your ear and yell right into the mouthpiece. I suppose that it ensures that you won't be interrupted.

As you can tell I have spent a lot of time on MUNI and AC transit without headphones.
posted by hooves at 12:42 AM on March 14, 2006