Mobile Identity: Youth, Identity, and Mobile Communication Media

1. Mobile Identity: Youth, Identity, and Mobile Communication Media Chrissy Commons, Lindsey Alfano, Leigh Maxwell-Smith

2. The Mobile Phone and Mobility • Technology is transforming • Phones have become an extension of the body • Devices have multiple functions • More useful to everyday life

3. Mobility and Young People • We are mobile • Our phones are mobile with us • Information is mobile • We are always ready to receive a message • “Moveable, agile, able to be moved or transported easily and fast; ready to march, ready for battle”

4. The Mobile Phone in Contemporary Youth Culture • Find it difficult to be with out their phones • Cannot imagine not being able to get in touch with friends/family at any moment • Makes everyday life easier

5. The Importance of The Mobile • Cannot leave home with out it • Essential • Rated 8-10 in importance on a 1-10 scale • Some do not have landlines • “You need to have your mobile with you, just like you need to wear pants”

6. Use and Adaption • Young Danes use the mobile mainly for communication—it is primarily still a telephone with text messaging and additional services. • The choice of the mobile and use of services also indicate the mobility and fleeting inconsistency of trends in youth cultures. • The long-term impact of these possibilities is not easily predicted, as the same technology seems to be adapted and integrated in different ways and with different meanings. • However, several sets of conditions affect the adaptation rate and the common as well as unexpected uses in different national and cultural contexts: These include cultural factors, social aspects, and practical constraints.

7. Availability • With the mobile you don’t miss much. • You have your friends right at your hand and you do more spontaneous things. • You’re always “on”—never turn your phone off • Several of our informants said that they would keep the mobile on at night and even have it next to their heads on the pillow—act as alarm and didn’t want to miss any calls or messages.

8. Phatic Communication • To be in contact means being “tuned in” • Learning the codes, the unwritten rules for meaning, language, and normative behavior is essential in order to make the communication meaningful. • “No free moments” “No time off” • Turning your phone off completely for a few hours a day can prevent stress built up through always being “on”.

9. The Perception of Presence in a Shared Space: • There is a difference between physical and social presence. • Physical: Where you are. • Social: A variable state that depends on the context and way in which you are communicating with the other person • Youth are able to create intimate spaces by shutting out their physical surroundings, ignoring the physical state they are in. • The intimacy of communication is not dependent on the medium, but the context and the relationship the two people share. • Meaningful communication is possible through mobile phones, but youth in the study agreed that serious issues must be dealt with face-to-face. Body language and facial cues are vital to fully understanding what the other person is really saying.

10. Being Simultaneously Present in Several Spaces: • We are able to divide our attention to simultaneously engage in side activities that do not distract us from out main activity. • Youth do not agree with this, attempting to be present in 2 different conversations always results in getting distracted from one conversation. • Creates a situation in which a person is physically present with one person, but mentally in another place, whomever they are talking to through their phone. Therefore, causing the person being ignored to feel excluded from the conversation their friend is having without them. • Mobile can also help in this way, transporting people to other mental spaces when the physical space they are in is not enjoyable or awkward. Phone becomes a “symbolic bodyguard.”

11. The Mobile as Personal Log • Mobile holds the story of our lives. • Captures out interactions and memories, what is important to us too. • Allows us to share ourselves with others, include them in our “private spheres.”

12. The Mobile as the Data Double: • Mobile can be seen as an extension of ourselves. It is always with us ready to capture moments of our lives.

13. Social Learning • 2 ways: • Learning through social interaction • Learning through social norms • Norms and rules constantly change, and vary depending on social groups. • What we find rude/inconsiderate. • Mobiles are often seen as distraction from life, how it affects our interactions with those around us. • How we feel about people on their phones and what it says about them. • Ex: Many people see it as rude when their friend texts during a meal, it is considered showing a lack of respect. • Youth learn the rules of phone use, also influenced by their identity as a person.

14. Conclusion • How mobile phones affect youth’s identities as people. • Learn to “manage and develop personal identity and the importance of social networks in this process are strongly facilitated by mobiles.” • Youth are able to develop and keep relationships, form connections easier now. Need to know how to navigate all these relationships through technology.

15. Quiz • The cell phone has altered the lives of the youth from today’s generation. Has technology changed writing as well?