Mobile phone culture in Thailand

Posted by admin on October 1st, 2007 filed in Culture & customs, Expat life, People, Living here, Understanding Thais

Nothing has captured the Thai imagination more than mobile phones. Well, maybe Karaoke has, but you can’t carry your karaoke machine around with you everywhere. In Thailand the communication revolution has certainly arrived, and boy have they taken to it with gusto. In fact, if you were to ask me to demonstrate one single action that universally epitomises typical Thai behaviour I wouldn’t hesitate to raise my hand to my ear as if I were speaking into my hand phone.

In the urban areas of Thailand I believe there are few people who have willingly chosen not to own a mobile phone. Without one you’re a nobody in Thailand. Not only do Thais insist on owning a phone, but they are obsessed with using them and herein lies a subtle but important characteristic of their modern personalities. Nothing pleases a Thai more than the sound of their mobile phone ringing, for it indicates they are not alone, they are thought of, or needed or at least receiving some attention, be it a boyfriend or girlfriend, colleague, family member, lacky, customer or friend.

It also empowers you and, I suspect, gives the owner a sense of sophistication and esteem – always important in Thailand. Of course, being on your own isn’t very common in Thailand, Thai’s love doing things in groups and if this isn’t possible then you can always rely on your phone. Not having some company is a nightmare to a Thai, so the advent of mobile phones has been a godsend. When they are bored or alone the first thing they turn to is their mobile phone.

Mobile phones are everywhere, and it isn’t difficult to notice this because no one is particularly discreet about having one, or using one. They’ll sit through an entire lunch party on the phone, keep you waiting at the service counter while they rabbit on to their friend, continue their work, drive their car, ride their motorbike, answer another phone, eat, shop and even conduct several of these tasks together while on the phone. In short, there is no such thing as phone etiquette here.

Expect someone to loudly gabber away in front of you while watching TV, or ruin the atmosphere of a romantic restaurant. An when you are out on a date with a Thai (usually girls) expect their phone to ring at least half a dozen times during the evening, often two or three times from the same caller, and they’ll proceed to talk away, oblivious to your presence.

In fact many no go so far as owning two, or even three, so they can take advantage of different competing network’s rates at different times of the day. Often the phones ring at the same time and, believe it or not, I’ve seen them try to answer both and conduct two conversations at once. They’re also slaves to their phones and will jump out of bed in the middle of the night to answer a phone.

Read more on ‘Thai phone behaviour’ in the next blog instalment.

Thai phone behaviour

In the previous blog instalment I was discussing the wide-spread use of mobile phones in Thailand and how much it is a part of modern Thai behaviour. Today I want to give you some examples and elaborate further on this phenomenon.

In Thailand the ex prime minister – Taksin Shinawatra, whowas also CEO of Shin Corp which is one of the country’s largest conglomerates yet was largely unheard of twenty years ago. How did it rise so quickly? Mobile communications is the answer. The PM happened to own Thailand’s second largest phone company, as well as several satellites and he controls a huge empire that includes an airline, TV stations and cable companies among others. But what makes him rich is the incessant phone calls that everyone in the country makes.

I once witnessed a girl lock her house, open her car, remove the steering lock, drive for 20 minutes through rush hour traffic and then down a motorway at 100kms an hour, park, lock the car and enter a shopping mall, then buy something, pay for it and continue shopping all during a single phone conversation! On another occasion I overheard a guy in a bar complaining that the prostitute he had taken home stopped and climbed off him in the height of passion to answer the phone!

When the phone rings here, they jump to answer it with excitement. It could be 6am in the morning or midnight and people will call, and yes they will answer it. Then there are the ring tones, which is big business. I’ve seen teenage girls who go shopping especially for rings tones, and romantic ditties that play while you wait for the person to answer your call. Spending an afternoon in the mall is like a tour de force of retro classics as everything from Kylie to Abba chirps from anonymous phones all about you.

And then there is the most important aspect of the phone, using it as a status symbol. Boy the phone marketing companies love this one because Thailand is so status conscious and the rule of thumb here is; the smaller and more feature-packed your phone is the more important you can think you are. It always surprised me why whole floors of shopping malls are given over to phone shops, then I realised there is actually a complex system of trading involved and mobile phone shopping is national pastime which involves whole afternoons browsing the model you wish you had, or intend to upgrade to even if you’ve just upgraded. How some people afford them is beyond me, as I’ve seen several people with phones that cost more than double their monthly salaries, though I understand mobile phones are the essential gift for your mia noi (minor wife).

And so there exists a huge market of phone merchants who assist with the percolating down the wealth ladder of the latest mobile phone technology. It all starts with a filthy stinking rich mama who’s bored of her $1000 PDA-cum-phone-cum-camera-cum-personal organiser-cum-MP3 player, trades it in for a different colour or brand name and everything moves down from there in a mass trade in the keeps thousands of these little vendors in business. The current vogue is a thumb-sized dainty little folding number, complete with cutesy camera, and you hang it around your neck like a piece of jewelry. With this comes a whole industry of kitchy accessories to help customise your generic Nokia with tassles and glowing antennas, clothing, colour-switching covers and more. And if, god forbid, your phone is too big to display in your non-existent cleavage then you  have to opt for a posh looking leather belt case.