It’s safe to say that the majority of mobile devices on the market fall short of being marked as “instruments of social change”. Instruments of "Sexting", sure. LOLing and Facebooking, without question. But to heap the lofty title of “revolutionary” upon the shoulders of the clear front-runner in an industry built on planned obsolescence is a bit misguided. But it does happen. In fact, it’s happening as we speak. We just don’t realize it.

Take a company like TakingITMobile for example. They’re a community-based research study conducted in partnership with social network TakingITGlobal. What they do is examine how youth leaders around the world use mobile devices to create social change. And their findings are quite interesting to say the least.

Mobile Revolutions reports:

TakingITMobile participants were passionate about a number of global issues, including the Environment (39%), Human Rights (36%), Poverty (28%), Health (24%), Peace (23.8%), HIV/AIDS (22.4%) and Violence (11.6%). While the most common mobile feature was Voice Calls (75%), TakingITMobile participants used a variety of mobile phone features, including Text Messages (46%), Web Browsing (38%), Social Media (27%), News (26%) and Photography (22%).

It was also discovered that youth who own smart phones are more likely to use their phones for activism (81%) than youth who don’t (71%). As well, females are much less likely (70%) to use their phones for activism than males. Youth ages 25-29 show higher levels of activism (84%) than youth in their teens (67%), early 20s (75%) and 30s (75%).

While these numbers are surely accurate, one can’t help but recall the Lowe Counsel post we did on “Clicktivism” only a short time ago and think, ‘could the rise is mobile activism simply be the mobile version of clicktivism?’

“text MOBYDICK to 4403 if you like saving whales”

“text LISTEN to 5475 if you think your band is really rad and deserves a record deal”

“text PAWS to 9800 if you’re down with the giving animals the right to vote”

Texting, just as Clicking before does not a revolutionary make. And while numbers don’t lie, the story behind them surely can. If mobile activism is another quick, clicktivist reach at drumming up interest in community concerns, activism and social change it could be in danger of falling victim to the two elements that make it a popular option to begin with: apathy and ease.