Mobile Communication: Bringing Us Together and Tearing Us Apart

by Campbell,Scott

• ISBN13: 9781412818612
• ISBN10: 1412818613
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-06-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This volume brings together scholars from around the world to consider how mobile communication is both bringing us together and destroying our sense of social cohesion. There is no question that uses of technology can lead to increased cohesion within personal communities. However, as social networks become inundated with mobile communication users, the contributors argue, they may become isolated and social division can take hold. Mobile Communication covers a wide range of topics, including the replacement of co-present interaction with mediated contact; analysis of mobile-based cohesion and gender; the role of media choice and its effect on the quality as well as quantity of social cohesion; mobile communication and communities of interest; and mobile communication, cohesion, and youth. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of mobile use and its impact on social cohesion are also considered. There are chapters on caravan couples in Australia, factory workers in China, young couples in Germany, citizens in Slovenia, and sports clubs in Ireland. There is also research on drunken calls between university students in the U.S., calls among international students in Switzerland who strive to keep in contact, and communications by immigrant women in Melbourne, Australia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Mobile Communication: Bringing Us Together and Tearing Us Apart	p. 1
Mobile Symbiosis: A Precursor to Public Risk-Taking Behavior?	p. 17
Mobile Specters of Intimacy: A Case Study of Women and Mobile Intimacy	p. 37
(Im)mobile Mobility: Marginal Youth and Mobile Phones in Beijing	p. 61
Mobiles Are Not That Personal: The Unexpected Consequences of the Accountability, Accessibility, and Transparency Afforded by Mobile Telephony	p. 83
Mobile Communication in Intimate Relationships: Relationship Development and the Multiple Dialectics of Couples' Media Usage and Communication	p. 107
Bonds and Bridges: Mobile Phone Use and Social Capital Debates	p. 127
Extended Sociability and Relational Capital Management: Interweaving ICTs and Social Relations	p. 151
Network and Mobile Sociality in Personal Communities: Exploring Personal Networks of ICT Users	p. 181
There's an Off-line Community on the Line!	p. 211
Mobile Social Networking: Learning from Tourists' Use of CB Radio in the Australian Outback	p. 229
Generation Disconnections: Youth Culture and Mobile Communication	p. 249
Interpersonal Communication beyond Geographical Constraints: A Case of College Students Who Maintain Geographically Dispersed Relationships	p. 271
ôI Love You, Manö: Drunk Dialing Motives and Their Impact on Social Cohesion	p. 293
Conclusion: Connecting and Disconnecting through Mobile Communication	p. 323
About the Contributors	p. 331
Index	p. 339
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