In the past, our mobile phones offered only marginally better functionality than two tin cans subjoined to the same piece of string. We never had cause to stare at our mobile phones; in fact, the only time we came into contact with them was when they rang. We would turn enquiringly toward our 10lb device, press the answer button and weld it to our ears. It was known as a phone call.

Nowadays, mobiles are mini-computers. Phone calls account for less than 3% of the average owner’s overall usage time. 40% is spent trawling Facebook, while 28% is spent gaming. Surfing the net, texting and sending emails account for the bulk of our residual routine.

While this trend seems to indicate a staggering proclivity toward aimless indolence - bored users alleviating the dullness of their train journeys and lunch breaks by pelting Angry Birds at guffawing pigs or posting inane Facebook updates - it’s not all about escapism: thanks to the rapid expansion of the mobile web, media jobs are also on the rise.

Nowadays, many media jobs are to be found based around the proliferation of mobile devices. Media graphic design jobs, for example, no longer centre around QuarkExpress and PhotoShop. An increasing number of interface designers for mobile platforms are being sought by specialist agencies looking for the next top-selling app. Creative media strategists are also in demand, with the popularity of mobiles driving digital media campaigns like never before.

Depending on your experience, a job in DSP, data services or creative media can land you a salary of anywhere between £20,000 and £40,000, rising higher still for senior creative positions.

A spate of social media analyst jobs have also started appearing, while media graduate jobs vacancies with an emphasis for mobile-friendly platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn are increasingly in demand. Such roles as ‘Creative Digital Strategist’ and ‘Social Media Account Manager’ were unheard of before smartphones began hitting the market.

There may be a preponderance of ‘creative’ media vacancies centred around mobile devices, but what about other media roles - can the mobile web provide suitable career opportunities?

Thanks to the range of media content that is consumed on mobile phones, there has been a marked increase in journalistic opportunities to support the medium. While many newspapers are trying to cope with the popularity of digital content by ‘replicating’ stories across multiple platforms - iPad, website and print - The Times editor James Harding recently claimed content ‘cloning’ would not continue. His aim, he said, was to ‘stop the duplication of production between print, iPad, website and, most recently, Android.’

The newspaper’s recent 10% rise in digital subscriptions suggests more readers are migrating to online services - so what does this mean for media graduates? In theory, at least, it means more jobs. As publications compete to create the most dynamic, engaging mobile content, they will have to recruit dynamic, diverse media graduates to do so.

With an increasing number of businesses looking to establish social media ‘identities’, media graduates with good writing skills are being tapped to write Tweets and to create short, punchy content that can be easily absorbed on the mobile web.

Whether your media skills are creative or traditional, your future may lie in the mobile web. Just remember that mobile media is constantly evolving in order to keep pace with technological advances - to be successful in the industry, you’ll have to do the same.