Mobile Phones & Cyberspace

Question 1

State some facts about the history of mobile phones

Answer 1

First mobile phone call made in 1973.
108 million handsets were sold in 1997.
1.8 billion handsets were sold in 2011.

Question 2

Mills - what are the public issues of mobile phones?

Answer 2

Child safety and protection - children can use their phone if in trouble.
Child vulnerability- children can now be contacted from many (some unsafe) sources.
Consumerism - mobile phones are a fashion statement - constantly upgrading.

Question 3

What does Horst and Miller (2006) say about the impact of mobile phones on the family?

Answer 3

There are clear impacts of mobile phones on the internal relations within the family - including the dynamics of surveillance and freedom between children and parents.

Question 4

Mills - What is one of the main concerns of mobile phones for the public?

Answer 4

The possibility of children talking to strangers online & the risk of cyber-bullying.
Illustrates how a personal matter of owning a mobile can become an issue within the public domain - combining the private and public spheres.

Question 5

How can Gothman’s concept of the presentation of self be applied to mobile phones?

Answer 5

Phones say something about you - shows an image you’re trying to project - mobiles are seen as status symbols and objects of desire.
Image projection - phones can be used to avoid familiar social contacts in public settings -can be used a prop of self-presentation to convey a sense of ‘busyness’.

Question 6

How can Gothman’s concept of the territories of the self and personal space be applied to mobile phones?

Answer 6

Mobile phone can intrude into other’s aural/personal space - in public we have to listen to other people’s phone calls.
Public and private spaces collide.

Question 7

How can Gothman’s concept of frames be applied to mobile phones?

Answer 7

Etiquette - people have a choice as to whether they answer a phone call or not - depends on the setting and circumstance.
Social frames are now called upon within mobile phone communication or when individuals use their phones in public environments.
Mobiles can be used as a prop of self-presentation to convey a sense of ‘busyness’ - dodging what an individual knows will be an awkward social encounter from their own personal, framed experiences.

Question 8

How can Gothman’s concept of improvisation and routine be applied to mobile phones?

Answer 8

Organisation - individuals can make rough arrangements and coordinate on the move via phones - improvise as we go along.
There is a need for permanent accessibility- individuals need to be in contact at all times.

Question 9

According to Campbell and Kwak (2011) how does the use of mobile phones challenge behavioural norms?

Answer 9

The use of mobile phones in public spaces challenges behavioural norms as it can disrupt new social encounters by creating a barrier between the user and bystanders in their immediate environment.

Question 10

What does Geser (2004) say about mobile phones and the blurring of regions?

Answer 10

Mobile phones have now become a new prop for the projection of self that combines front and back regions - this blurring of regions means that performances may overlap.
Role conflict occurs when individuals have to take personal calls within public spaces - requires them to remain in character on the phone while keeping up their impression in public.

Question 11

What is Ramos and Navarro’s (1993) example regarding public phone calls and role conflict?

Answer 11

When mothers talk to their children from the workplace, calls may be overheard.
This complicates impression management as mothers have to nurture the child over the phone while still remaining professional with the work environment.

Question 12

How has cyberspace contributed to changes in languages?

Answer 12

Social network terms have become part of our daily language, new verbs such as google, tweet and friend.
Specialist language - these concepts express in a very short word something that is a complicated process e.g. online, trending, mute.
Emojis are now a new form of expression - can help make messages clearer - conveys emotion.

Question 13

Mills - what are the public issues surrounding the internet?

Answer 13

Privacy
Surveillance
Masquerading and fantasy/reality
The internet mob

Question 14

Mills - why is privacy a public issue of the internet?

Answer 14

Privacy - corporations can use our data and sell it on - data is a valuable commodity on the market.

Question 15

Mills - why is surveillance a public issue of the internet?

Answer 15

Surveillance - governments want to monitor our internet usage - data we wouldn’t share in really life.

Question 16

Mills - why is masquerading and

fantasy/reality a public issue of the internet?

Answer 16

Masquerading and fantasy/reality - people displaced themselves from their real relationships and focus on online relationships.
- people can masquerade as someone else online leads to a particular concern for car fishing/online grooming.

Question 17

Mills - why is the internet mob a public issue of the internet?

Answer 17

The internet mob - weaponised by particular political groups attacking other groups/individuals - leads to trolling behaviour.

Question 18

What is a critique of the public issues of the internet?

Answer 18

Privacy, engagement and identity are already inter-related - none of these concepts are new just different personifications of the same thing.
The public/private boundary is contextual as it depends who you are - normal people have a relative degree of control over what people can know about you.

Question 19

How else can be Mill’s concepts be applied to cyber networks?

Answer 19

Sociological imagination - see the large and the small feeding off one another.
- social media can facilitate relationships.
Public and private - social media allows us to make edited versions of our private life within the public sphere.

Question 20

How can Goffman’s concepts be applied to cyber networks?

Answer 20

Presentation of self - what in our profile e.g. pictures, status, etc.
Impression management - choice of information we out online - can filter ourselves to appear desirable.
Interaction rituals - checking feed at particular times of the day or when doing a particular activity - context specific.
Frames - gaps between what someone intends to say and what how the receiver interprets it - can lead to conflict.

Question 21

Finish this quote from Turkle (1999):

Within the communities of cyberspace “we are dwellers in the threshold between the …

Answer 21

Within the communities of cyberspace “We are dwellers in the threshold between the real and virtual, unsure of our footing, inventing ourselves as we go along.”

Question 22

According to Turkle (1999) why do people turn to computers?

Answer 22

People turn to computers for experiences that they hope will change their ways of thinking or will affect their social and emotional lives.
In cyberspace we can talk, exchange ideas and assume a personae of our own creation.
Computer screens are the new location for our fantasies, both erotic and intellectual.
We are using life on computer screens to become comfortable with new ways of thinking about evolution, relationships, sexuality, politics and identity.

Question 23

What does Jenkins (2010) say about the boundary between the digitised and the physical?

Answer 23

The boundary between the digitised and the physical - where one ends and the other begins is not a matter of clear cut staging and framing.

Question 24

What does Jenkins (2010) say about face to face work and the digitised/physical interaction order?

Answer 24

Face to face work in the digitised interaction order closely resembles what goes on in the physical interaction order.
There is impression management of varying degrees of honesty, authenticity, irony and deceit.
There is also interactional etiquette and cannons of acceptable behaviour.