Cell Phones, Sharing, and Social Status in an African Society

In this article, the author explains how cell phones greatly reflect social status in Africa. The author is told a man of his status should have a nicer cell phone. The people of Nigeria see upper class people should strive to show their class superiority through the possessions they have. On an international level you can compare this to any other society. In America for instance it is also easy to distinguish social class based on the materials certain people can acquire. Even poorer lower class families try to provide nicer things for the family in order to comply with society and try to move up in social status. The idea of needing nice things to be a more civil person is created by society to force others to comply, which i feel is unnecessary and can cause many problems among peers.