Leopoldina Fortunati

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.

Is Body-to-Body Communication Still the Prototype?

Body-to-body communication has widely been accepted as the prototype for mediated communication. This article interrogates the assumption that there is a dividing line between body-to-body and mediated communication. It shows that body-to-body communication intermingles profoundly with forms of mediated communication, to the point that it becomes very difficult to tell them apart. Starting from this framework, it analyzes the great imitative capacity of mediated communication with regard to body-to-body communication, and analyzes how this similarity is destined to grow in time. It concludes that because of these changes, body-to-body communication is an increasingly evanescent prototype.

MEDIATIZATION OF THE NET AND INTERNETIZATION OF THE MASS MEDIA

To measure the impact of the internet on the traditional media, researchers usually begin by considering their presence and use online. The hypothesis of this article is that the most crucial measure of the impact of the internet on the classic media does not depend on the more-or-less forced invasion of the internet by the press, radio and television, but is to be sought in other processes. More exactly, it is to be found in the mediatization of the net, both fixed (computer/internet) and mobile (internet/mobile phone), and in the ‘internetization’ of the classic mass media. These two processes at the same time enable one to measure the impact of traditional media on the internet, making it possible to trace the succession of thrusts and counter-thrusts, modifications and reciprocal incursions, for which the traditional means of communication and the internet have been responsible.

New Technologies in Global Societies

Technological advancements in the West since the last millennium have contributed to global modernity. Technologies set conditions for the closeness of the nation-states and for the affinity of the global and the local. They are also penetrating everyday life, and even sometimes the body, producing radical social changes. Yet, arguing that new technologies bring a new life and a promising future to global societies remains a questionable thesis.

Sociological insights on the comparison of writing/reading on paper with writing/reading digitally

The aim of this article is to investigate the impact of digital technologies on writing and reading within an educational rather than business environment. It explores the affordances of writing and reading on paper and those of writing on a keyboard and reading on a screen. The analysis is based on an exploratory study carried out with a class of Masters Students in Multimedia Communication and Technologies of Information at the University of Udine (Italy) who were asked to write an essay on this topic. The methodology applied in this study is qualitative content analysis of the essays produced by the students. The principal results of this study show that reading and writing competencies are changing with the use of digital technologies but that paper and digital interactions are not mutually exclusive. Students are more productive textually with writing than with reading, however, they still see the virtues of writing on paper which they continue to use extensively. It appears that chirographic writing and paper is more multi-sensorial and meta-communicative than using the keyboard or screen. Further research is recommended to explore this complementarities of writing on paper and on screen/keyboard as well as the perceived changes in preferred sources of reading material.

The advanced use of mobile phones in five European countries

The paper explores the advanced users of mobile phones in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the UK (EU5 countries) and aims to clarify the social meaning of advanced use. The mobile phone is seen as a strategic tool of social labour, whose capabilities are exploited to a different extent in the five studied countries. The analysis is based on a cross-national survey data collected in 2009 (N = 7,255). First, the results show that there are substantial differences in the advanced use of mobile phone and its predictors in Europe. Generally, only about one third of the studied mobile features are exploited. British and French people are the most advanced users, followed by German, Spanish and Italians. While Italians have stuck to early developed mobile phone features, Britons especially have continued to adopt the newer properties of the mobile phone. Second, the article shows that owing to the extensive under-utilization of its features, the mobile phone as a tool of social labour is efficiently exploited by only a small number of people. They, however, constitute technological vanguards that make use of the diverse features in different countries. This limited use of advanced features results in the new patterns of social stratification.

Online and print newspapers in Europe in 2003. Evolving towards complementarity

Abstract This article assesses online newspapers in Europe from a media evolutionary perspective, ten years after the introduction of the World Wide Web. Comparing print and online front pages of 51 newspapers in 14 countries in 2003, we argue that online newspapers complement print newspapers in modest ways. Online, publishers put more emphasis on service information, offer additional news items, that nonetheless report on similar topics in similar ways, and add personal interactivity, content selectivity and real-time news to the print news offering. One subset of online newspapers charges for services, and offers more content and personal interactivity. Another, partly overlapping subset offers more original news; in a short and anonymous format. Overall, however, online newspapers in Europe make up a heterogeneous group, suggesting that online newspapers still have to find their definite form and role in the European news market.

Introduction to the Special Issue “Beyond Industrial Robotics: Social Robots Entering Public and Domestic Spheres”

Industrial and domestic robotics provide fascinating and relevant perspective insights into current and possible trajectories for the development of contemporary societies. While industrial robotics has found its place since the 1960s, domestic robotics wherein humans interact with social robots is still an unsettled area. After reviewing data on the diffusion of social robots and on their use, the historical tradition from which social robots come is discussed. This discussion is followed by an analysis of the penetration of social robots in everyday life and the importance of interdisciplinary research is highlighted.

Mobile phone communication in social support networks of older adults in Slovenia

Mobile phone communication in social support networks of older adults is examined.Mobile phones are important for mediating emotional support and social companionship.The composition of social support networks scarcely predicts mobile phone communication.Age and socioeconomic status are negative predictors only in emotional support networks.Living alone positively affects mobile phone contacts in social support networks. Mobile phones have gained an important role in the personal communication of older adults with the members of their social support networks. Research shows that older adults increasingly use the mobile phone for maintenance and development of social interactions with their family members, peers, and caregivers as providers of emotional support and social companionship. Therefore, this study explores how retired older adults in Slovenia use mobile phones as personal devices for supportive communication as well as how the characteristics of their social support networks are related to the frequency of mobile phone communication with their network members. Using ego-centered social support network data, collected on a nationwide representative sample of retired older adults in Slovenia, this study found that the composition of emotional support and of social companionship networks scarcely predicts the frequency of mobile phone communication of older adults with their network members. Conversely, according to the results, it seems that more frequent in-person and landline phone communication with network members are positively associated with mobile phone communication, suggesting that older adults extend their communication sphere with a mobile phone in their support networks. Finally, the results indicate that sociodemographic characteristics of older adults, such as age, social-economic status, and living alone, significantly determine the frequency of mobile communication with their network members, even though their magnitude varies depending on the type of social support network.

What happened to body-to-body sociability?

This article aims to investigate how the body-to-body forms of sociability evolved from 1996 to 2009 simultaneously with the proliferation of ICTs in Europe and why this happened. The article also aims to find out how the socio-demographic profile of Europeans practising these forms developed in the same period of time. The analysis is based on two surveys carried out in Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain in 1996 (N=6609) and 2009 (N=7255). Results show that although the internal diffusion and frequency of the forms of communicative sociability changed, on the whole the amount of sociability has increased so slightly that it would be more appropriate to speak about real stability over the time. Secondly, results reveal that the possession of mobile phones and personal computers in 1996, and respectively the Internet in 2009, was especially associated with the increase in sociability. Lastly, the socio-demographic profile of the Europeans practising these forms of sociability changed between 1996 and 2009, although less than one might have expected.