Tetrad Mobile Devices

From the interview with Kristov Nyiri, the director of the Institute of Philosophical Research, part of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, in TheFeature, one can draw a tetrad for mobile devices. These are mobile phones with screens, messaging and cameras.

McLuhan Laws of Media Tetrad Mobile Devices
Visual thinking and communications enhance	Sometimes, someplaces reverses
retrieves Face-to-face communications	obsolesces Mobile Phones

These devices are obsolescing mobile phones.

The retrieval is face-to-face communications. Nyiri says "most of the people that you have texted or called today are actually people you will meet face-to-face at some point today. From my research, many mobile calls are to people who are physically close, and many texts are to people you are about to meet."

Mobile devices enhance non-verbal communications and thinking according to his research with usage by carpenters versus soft drink salespeople and real estate agents. "From a philosophy perspective, many academics believe that people think in terms of images and not words. Research shows that at least 50% of face-to-face communication is through expressions, gestures and tones. MMS can make mobile communications even closer to face-to-face conversations."

Nyiri does not discuss reversal, but from my experience, as mobile devices become ubiquitous, problems arise. Instead of anywhere and anytime, use of mobile devices are being banned from concerts, operas, movies, some restaurants and other public locations. Spouses are banning them from vacations. Schools ban student use. So the reversal is sometime and someplaces.