Smartphones, Caste, and Intersectionalities
This chapter 7 examines differences in phone use, especially in the way people use smartphones and access the internet. The availability of internet-ready phones in Janta has not turned all people into direct internet users. College-educated men and women are able to browse the textual content of the internet with the help of their smartphones, whereas the majority of people find smartphones useful for listening to music and watching films. They buy downloaded content on phone memory chips instead of browsing the internet independently. When the benefits of phones are assessed on the basis of their educational impact, they do not appear particularly transforming. However, accessing entertainment using phones can also be transformative because sharing of entertainment content contributes to social interaction and the capacity to aspire.