The mobile phone: Towards new categories and social relations1

Abstract The debate over the social use of the mobile phone has been enriched by a large amount of information and reflection as to how this instrument has modified interpersonal relations, changed roles in the family, re‐defined the limits of communicative possibilities, rewritten the present functioning of institutions such as hospitals and schools, as well as the modus operandi of criminal organizations, intensified work rhythms, rationalized the organization of work relations, in a word, how the use of the mobile has profoundly changed society.2 On the contrary, less attention has been dedicated to the reconstruction and analysis of the impulse that its users have given the mobile (see its unexpected transformation, from the king of orality to a means of writing and reading). The main thesis of this article is that the mobile is changing not only society, but above all the framework in which society lives. This framework is made up of space and time as its primary determinations, which are able to integrate, stabilize and structure reality. The mobile changes reality in its widest sense, or rather its social representation. Let us remember with McLuhan (1964), Meyrowitz (1985) and many other scholars, that the medium is not only the message, but also a specific concept of time and space, that is, a specific dimension of existence. In the following sections, above all the changes that have been brought about to space and time will be dealt with, and then how the statute of the presence and absence of individuals in social space is modified will be analysed, how the relation between modern citizens changes radically with public space, and finally how the democratic process is enriched by further implementations. Key words: mobile phonespacetimepublic spacedemocracysocial relations Notes This article is the re‐working of a paper presented at the international seminar 'Sosiale Knonsekvenser av Mobiltelefoni', organized by Telenor, Oslo on 16 June 2000.