Repositorium für die Medienwissenschaft

James E. Katz
Mobile communication and the transformation of daily
life. The next phase of research on mobiles
2005
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Katz, James E.: Mobile communication and the transformation of daily life. The next phase of research on mobiles. In:
Peter Glotz, Stefan Bertschi, Chris Locke (Hg.): Thumb Culture. The Meaning of Mobile Phones for Society. Bielefeld:
transcript 2005, S. 171–182. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/1187.

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 MOBILE COMMUNICATION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF DAILY LIFE

Mobile communication and the transformation

of daily life:
The next phase of research on mobiles
James E. Katz

In contrast to computer and internet technology, social science re-

search on mobile communication technology has not caught on quickly
among the scholarly community. Until recently, it was painfully accu-
rate to decry the lack of scholarly interest in the mobile phone (Katz &
Aakhus 2002). Happily, though, the situation is improving rapidly, not
the least because of a growing international community of scholars
dedicated to investigating social aspects of mobile communication
technology.
Beginning in the mid-to-late 1990s, impressive progress has
been made in tackling the scholarly study of the social aspects of this
technology. Among the earliest efforts was a 1995 survey (apparently
the first national poll to compare users to non-users of mobile phones)
which focused on the social consequences of its early adoption (Katz
1999). Certainly a foundational thinker about the sociology of the mo-
bile phone (and internet) has been Hans Geser, a Swiss researcher
whose writings have been at once both prescient and influential (see
his contribution to this volume).
Over the past several years, the leadership and contributions of
Dr. Kristof Nyiri, both individually and through his far-reaching con-
ferences arising from the Institute for Philosophical Research at the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, has been far-reaching. His work has
not only advanced and broadened the field but has also helped create
an extensive community among concerned scholars. Lara Srivastava is
one of the astute and energetic commentators in this regard (Srivastava
2003; this volume). Her incisive, data-driven work has illuminated the
status of many countries throughout the world. For his part, Joachim
Höflich has demonstrated with precision the way use of urban space is
affected by mobile phone users (see his contribution, this volume).
Leopoldina Fortunati has written with great insight into the phenome-

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nological and fashion aspects of the mobile phone (Fortunati 2002). In

2004, Richard S. Ling published a masterful and incisive summary of
how the mobile phone appears to be affecting life in a variety of do-
mains. For his part, Leslie Haddon has been a principal in the re-thin-
king technology‘s role in the domestic sphere, and is one of the origina-
tors of a framework known as “domestication,” which explores the
moral economy and device integration into the household (Haddon
2004). Scott Campbell has been using international comparisons of stu-
dents perceptions of the mobile to explore further the Apparatgeist
theory proposed by Katz and Aakhus (2002). Other important thinkers
on the subject of mobile communication have also contributed impres-
sively to the area. These include M. Hulme, R. Harper and N. Döring.
Altogether, then, a highly insightful and comprehensive picture of mo-
bile phone reception, use and impact is being drawn. These manifold
efforts have led to an impressive corpus of knowledge.
Yet much is still to be learned. As the field moves forward, I
would like to suggest three areas worthy of deeper investigation. These
are (1) how space-time and attention to the physically present changes
due to mobile communication technology, (2) the manner in which mo-
bile communication technology affects self-presentational activities and
the choreography of the body in public space, and (3) transcendental
and spiritual uses of mobile technology. There are of course many
other topics, a few of which are highlighted at the chapter’s conclusion.

Meaning of time, self and life-space

An intriguing question that has caught the attention of researchers is

how people understand the process of time and its change (Zerubavel
2003). Understandably, the question of how mobile communication
technology is affecting people’s understanding and use of time is para-
mount. It may be the case, for example, that the experience of one’s
day changes as a result of mobile communication; this would include
subjective perceptions of time, its passage, and its meaning.
One phenomenological aspect might be what Ling and Yttri
(2002) have dubbed “hyper-coordination,” the sense that every moment
is caught in a web of planning and interaction with others, and that
plans can be changed quickly in light of circumstances and the actions
of others. They also assert that mobile phones serve to soften one’s
sense of time. To put it differently, users of mobile phones appear to be
more relaxed about re-doing schedules and altering plans if they are
able to use the mobile phone to coordinating with others.
It is even claimed by some observers, perhaps with a degree of
hyperbole, that the idea of being late may disappear altogether. Al-
though such claims are extreme, it certainly seems subjectively that

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schedules are more readily able to be negotiated if there are changing

circumstances, or even if internal subjective feelings change. Several
studies reach this conclusion (Zernicke 2003), and it has even been
suggested that “cell phones let us turn being late into being on time”
(Reader’s Digest 2004). By this it is meant that by calling to a waiting
party that one will be late in meeting that can (with the proper excuse)
redefine the appointment time to a later one. The essential claim is that
it is now more acceptable to all parties involved to adjust social and
business schedules. This certainly is the conclusion that Rheingold
(2002) reached on the basis of having talked about this issue with mo-
bile phone-using teenagers in Tokyo.
Related to this topic is whether it is indeed the case that mobile
phones seem to fragment and isolate the self. Some researchers have
focused on how mobiles reduce people’s self-reliance, which in turn
erodes their ability to react adaptively to unpredictable encounters.
Geser (2003) for instance claims that mobile phones can blunt the de-
velopment of certain social competencies. This is because of the con-
stant availability of external communication partners (as sources of
opinion and advice) as mobile phones enable people to retain primary
social relationships over distance. This affects people’s self-reliance,
making them unable to operate alone and leaving them dependent on
the mobile as a source of assistance and advice. Witness, for example,
increasing numbers of people using their cell phones while shopping in
grocery stores or video rental shops, asking their family or partners
what they should get.
In terms of the mobile phone as the device for filling unoccupied
stretches of time, some people in Tokyo (Moseley 2002) expressed con-
cerns about how the mobile phone is used to avoid being alone with
one’s thoughts. In Japan, the traditional ways of killing time (i.e., read-
ing books, comics, newspapers, etc.) are losing out to mobile phones.
Fortunati (2002) shows how the use of mobile has encouraged more
productive use of time. There can be little doubt that time spent com-
muting, waiting in queues at banks and airports—time ordinarily con-
sidered wasted—can now be used to communicate with others via the
mobile phone.
Among the analysts who have considered how the mobile phone
is altering one’s life-space are Peters and Hulme (2002). In their view,
the mobile phone is seen by users as an extension of their self. By the
same token, the loss of a mobile phone is felt not just on the material
level but also on the level of one’s sense of physical self. Indeed, some
even see such a loss as the psychological equivalent of physical disinte-
gration. Thus Moseley (2002) asserts that should a person leave home
without the mobile phone, that person may have a definite sense that
something is missing: “A human with a mobile in the pocket is appreci-
ably different from the human without one” (Moseley 2002: 37).

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Based on this discussion, it seems that the mobile phone may be

altering in a rather profound way the ordinary structure of everyday
life. Whether the structure is becoming more obscure to its members,
whether it is indeed becoming more plastic, and whether it is an impor-
tant question for researchers.
To take but one illustration of the way daily reality is being re-
arranged by mobile communication, we can inspect the problem area of
pedagogy. That is, we can raise the question of how education is pro-
ceeding when both students and teachers are equipped with mobile
communication devices. Yet that paper raised several questions con-
cerning the changing nature of ordinary life resulting from the wide-
spread use of mobile phones in educational settings. So to explore the
issue a bit further, in early September 2004 I asked some questions of a
class of Rutgers undergraduate students (most of whom are about 20
years old, and two-thirds of whom are female), about their cell phone
habits and experiences, especially as related to classes; the figures are
presented in Table 1. To begin, it is noteworthy that nearly all had cell
phones: of the 53 students in class, all but 1 reported having a mobile
phone and the one student who did not said he had owned previously
but currently was unable to afford one. Of those having them, the ma-
jority (73 percent) had their mobile phones on during the class, even
while the survey was being taken. Of the 38 who had them on during
class, 13 percent said that they had received a call or message since the
class had begun. No sounds were heard by me, and the students all said
their phones were on vibrate mode. (It is worth bearing in mind that US
students are much heavier users of voice services than SMS services.)
Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that about half of the
students indicated that they had witnessed a professor taking a mobile
phone call during class. This proportion of students, who have ob-
served such behavior, unsurprisingly, seems to continue upward as the
technology becomes more widespread, more commonplace, and as the
elapsed years of experience increase.
Several examples of this were discussed among the class mem-
bers. One incident revealed how a professor had lectured his students
about the importance of not having the cell phone sound during class.
The next week, his mobile phone began sounding. He took the call for a
moment, and then apologized to the class. Other professors were more
extensive in their use of the mobile phone during class, including en-
gaging in arguments with their spouses. In another illustration, this one
from 2003, a professor of information science received a call during a
doctoral seminar. He excused himself from the room, saying the call
was from a doctor whom he had been trying to reach for an extended
time period. That left the students baffled as to what they should do
until the professor returned several minutes later.
Although not subject of the college-level survey, it is worth re-

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porting an event that transpired which was an even more extreme ex-
ample of teacher misbehavior. This took place in an elementary school
in December 2003. It was reported that a music teacher of 4th grade
students (that is, children who were about 10 years old) engaged in
protracted discussions of up to five minutes long during class time. He
would go over to the classroom’s windows to get better reception;
meanwhile the bored students would begin trifling. In less extreme
examples, another 4th grade teacher would excuse herself and tell the
students that the call was related to her wedding planning.

Table 1: Opinions of students concerning experiences with mobile

phones in educational settings. Date: September 9, 2004. N=53,
percentages rounded.

Topic N Percent
Students in the class 53 100
– currently have mobile phone 98
– who had mobile phones on during class 73
– received mobile phone call during the first 25 10
minutes of class
– recall making a mobile phone call during 19
another class
– have seen their teachers use mobile phone during 49
classes.

One implication of this small-scale investigation is that the classroom is

no longer the isolated learning environment that it once was. Rather it
is blending into the rest of the life, creating an environment of perpetu-
al contact. As mobile games proliferate, the trend towards “outside in-
terference” will continue.

Mobiles as public choreography

Another aspect of mobile communication that would benefit from fur-

ther investigation is the “urban environmental” effects of its use in pub-
lic. To some degree, questions concerning this have been investigated
by Höflich (2004) and Katz (2003). However, the physical performance
of public communication, and its impact on the way others in the ambi-
ent environment behave, is an area not well developed.
In this section, I would like to call attention to the value of fur-
ther exploration of the way mobile phones are consumed in public.
That is, greater attention could be profitably devoted to investigating
mobile communication processes as part of the physical performances
that individuals undertake as they share, navigate, and occupy public

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space. Perhaps it would be useful to apply the term “dance” to this pro-
cess. In part this is a dance because the use of the mobile phone in
public by one party often requires that the user’s co-present partner
adjust themselves in space and pace. That is, they must engage in a bit
of choreography. This phenomenon of choreography finds a theoretical
framework in Edward Hall’s (1977) discussion of “being in sync.” This
refers to the idea that people in interactions need to “move together,”
and if one of the interactants are not “in sync,” other parties find the
interaction “disruptive” (Hall 1977: 71). He further states:

“People in interactions move together in a kind of dance, but they are not aware of their
synchronous movement and they do it without music or conscious orchestration. Being
‘in sync’ is itself a form of communication. The body’s message (in or out of awareness),
whether read technically or not, seldom lie, and come much closer to what the person’s
true but sometimes unconscious feelings are than does the spoken word.” (Hall 1977:
71-72)

Ling (2001) examines the way people manage their social interaction
involving the mobile phone. Observations of mobile phone use in pub-
lic places suggest that the emerging use of the mobile phone has intro-
duced a new context wherein people need to move “in sync.” Whether
people are aware of their body movement or not, they adjust their body
positioning once the face-to-face interactants start engaging in a mo-
bile phone conversation, thus creating a kind of dance with the mobile
phone. People involved in the interaction could be the partners of face-
to-face conversation at the moment or people who happen to be phys-
ically present in public places, rather like the “forced eavesdropping”
situation that Ling (2004) has described. The participants themselves
could be mobile phone users, nonusers or rejecters. Regardless of their
mobile phone use, they all have to take on the choreography of mobile
phone use somewhat, in order to have a smooth social interaction.
The choreography of arrangement is informal, but seems re-
markably consistent within cultures. For instance, it has been argued
that in Japan, users in public conveyances emphasize manners and pri-
vacy, seeking to exclude others. What follows are summaries of our ob-
servation. First, the non-using partner has to engage in symbolic be-
haviors that suggest valuable activity. At the same time, there is lots of
tacit and audible but indirect coordination. For instance, as the mobile
phone user gets ready to conclude the conversation, the non-participat-
ing partner mysteriously is able to resume focus on the mobile phone
user, and begin engaging the user visually.
There also seems to be a consistent set of postures that people
display when using the mobile phone. These include:

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– The bent over “into the wind” posture when walking and the phone
is held against the ear
– The public pacing—just where are the users going when they pace?
– The cricked neck
– The multi-task contortion
– Encompassing the technology to create a world separate from the
environment
– Draping the body on environmental objects
– The diamond (both arms to the side of the head, one hand holding a
mobile to an ear, the other used to cup the opposite ear)

In addition, behavior tends to reproduce itself. In his discussion of

“postural echo,” Desmond Morris (1977: 83) observes that friends who
are informally speaking with one another often adopt similar body pos-
tures. They do this, he says, “unconsciously as part of a natural body
display of companionship”. I would go further, and suggest that it is
often the case that people adopt the postures and body positions of
those around them whether or not they are friends. While Morris holds
that this form of imitation is not deliberate, I would go further and ar-
gue that it is actually quite hard to resist. It can often only be done if
one is consciously making an effort not to do so. At the very least, there
is a continual process of body posture interaction that complements the
postures of those around the actor.
In the case of mobile phone use, the co-present partner, who
had not been using his/her mobile phone, will often be prompted to
begin using his/her own phone. Certainly our surveys of students in
classrooms reinforces this idea. Students often say that when they see
another student using a mobile, it prompts them to begin doing so even
if they had not originally been intending to do so. Mobile phone use in
public therefore seems to beget yet more public mobile phone use.
From the viewpoint of human behavior and proxemics, a pas de
deux is created. However, the “postural echo” in this case does not
seem to be a sign of “companionship.” Two friends who are physically
co-present are more likely to be sending a relational message of “com-
panionship” to the persons who are on the physically present other side
of the situation. The person, who had not been using a mobile phone,
in order to display companionship, still unconsciously echoes the be-
havior of the partner who is physically present and using the mobile
phone. This would be predictable extrapolating from Morris’s assertion,
made decades before the mobile phone itself was publicly available.
Yet we also note that there is a constant attempt at communica-
tion coordination when one member of a dyad is on the mobile, and the
other not. There is continuous checking the partner’s expression when
the partner is looking away, which will be followed by the phone per-

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son looking away and the partner then checking out the phone user’s
face. Looks and body language alone are not the complete picture of
the mobile phone dance. There is “song” too. The tone and loudness of
the phone person’s voice signals the partner as to what the partner
should expect in terms of distance and anticipated additional time on
that the phone users will be on talking; this too helps coordinate the
choreography of the dyad.
A corollary aspect of public phone performance is that some-
times the dynamic of mobile phone use is largely (or even exclusively)
for those who are present. That is, talking on (or playing with) the mo-
bile phone may be as much for the benefit for those “present” with a
mobile phone user as it is for those who are “absent” and would be the
putative subjects of the mobile phone use. (This is certainly confirmed
by our research which shows about one in four mobile phone users say
they have pretended to talk on the mobile phone when there was actu-
ally no one on the other end of the line.)
So the choreography of mobile communication performance
needs to be better understood as an interpersonal communication phe-
nomenon, as a physical as well as a psycho-social and organizational
phenomenon.

The transcendental mobile phone

While the identity and personal meaning of the mobile phone has been
extensively examined, especially in terms of teens and children, the
same cannot be said in terms of the spiritual and religious, and extra-
sensory aspects. In particular, insufficient attention has been given to
the way mobile phones have been adopted as transcendental devices.
For many, the mobile device seemingly enables a crossing over from
this life to a possible after life or world beyond the “here and now.”
This is becoming widespread in terms of religious practices. For in-
stance, occasional Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall (“Wailing
Wall”) in Jerusalem will hold their mobile phones aloft so that their dis-
tant co-religionists can have their prayers be made audible at that
sacred location. Comparable scenes are repeated at Buddhist and Hin-
du shrines by adherents to those religions. In India, some Hindu temp-
les encourage the sending of SMS messages to supernatural entities re-
presented by their shrine’s telephone number. Users can also receive
messages via their mobile phone, such as a service offered in the Unit-
ed States wherein subscribers get daily messages from the Pope.
According to press reports, “Okwap” (a brand released by Inven-
tec Appliances Corp.) has taken advantage of Taiwanese interests in
Matsu, the Chinese goddess of the sea, and who is a popular religious
icon there. Okwap has created in 2004 a limited-edition model that

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comes with a Matsu holograph on the back of the phone, ring-tones

featuring religious chants and Matsu wallpaper for the display pad.
Most relevant is that all the phones have been blessed in a ritual at a
Matsu temple (Textually.org 2004), and can download special Matsu
music from the web. Originally only 2,000 phones were made (each
selling for about USD 300); however the demand was so overwhelming
that an additional 1,000 were produced before the run was permanently
ended.
In August 2004, Ilkone Mobile Telecommunications of the Unit-
ed Arab Emirates (UAE) launched the Ilkone i800, a device that it
claims is “the first fully Islamic mobile phone.” (Ilkone is derived from
the Arabic word for universe.) The phone boasts many features that
would be helpful to observant Muslims. The GSM-standard phone in-
cludes the full text of the Qur’an in Arabic with an English translation,
an automatic prayer call (azan) with full audio reproduction as well as a
silence mode, a prayer alarm before and after azan, automatic direction
finding for Mecca directions, a Ramadan calendar and a Hijri calendar
converter. According to Saqer Tellawi, CEO of Ilkone, “consumers now-
adays view mobile phones as devices which can add value to their self
being and inner feelings rather than just a simple communication tool.
Ilkone i800 is specially designed to serve Muslims all across the world
to address their needs, and add value to their spiritual self being” (Ilko-
netel 2004).
Transcendental matters concerning the mobile phone have been
taken still further. Uses of it have extended beyond the “spiritual self”
and have been applied to spirits themselves. As an illustration, it has
become the case that the mobile phones are now used as sacrificial gifts
and utilities for those beyond the grave. Boxes of sacrificial offerings to
the dead, which include items supposedly needed in the afterlife, have
been and made commercially available in Asian rim countries. Now
some of these gift boxes include mobile phones; in Hong Kong for in-
stance ready-made sacrificial packages are sold that include cardboard
mobile phones and pagers. In Japan, mobile phone antenna dongles
and mobile phone toys have been left on religious statues of shrines. A
statue of the Hindu god Lord Ganesh holding a mobile phone in one of
the many arms has been created and merchandized. When a young
Italian girl was accidentally killed by Mafiosi, mourners placed mobile
phones as memorial offerings on the tombstones.
Thus the mobile phone is taken by many not only as a statement
of self, but also as a representative of the self that can transcend states
of reality and transmit a sense of will and being beyond the realm of
the senses.

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Other areas sketched

Many other research topics are worthy of further investigation. A small

sampling is offered here to suggest the range of issues that mobile
communication is posing for us. These can be put in highly abbreviated
form here:

– What does it mean to be “with someone” and how does the splitting
of attention between present and distant locations affect respective
social relationships? Could we be hollowing out our social relation-
ships, or building, as R. Ling (2004) suggests, walled gardens
around our social selves?
– Are we moving from a phenomenology of writing to one of image, as
Nyiri (2005) argues?
– Are there going to be more semi-spontaneous and coordinated
group activities in the public sphere? Will the modes of initiating
contact for social relationship creation be modified as a result of this
technology?
– Will the practice of democracy change as a result of the availability
of mobile communication technology and new modes of information
dissemination and social organization?
– How will international crime control and anti-terrorism efforts be
affected by mobile communication? Already both the conduct of ter-
ror and efforts to safeguard people’s lives are being affected by mo-
bile communication, but who is gaining an advantage and with what
results needs to be further considered.
– Are there net benefits from the constant “perpetual contact” that
people increasingly experience due to their organizational involve-
ment?
– How will peer-to-peer mobile communication technology affect in-
stitutions?
– Will mobile communication technology serve to hollow local com-
mercial life as automatic and “self-service” and “do it yourself” ap-
proaches erase the retail and middle management classes? What
will the experience of shopping be like when the clerks and petite-
bourgeoisie are replaced self-service systems? How will this affect
urban and suburban landscapes and social life? Will a “mobile di-
vide” be created, especially to the disadvantage of the non-mobile
elderly and already socially marginalized?

These issues are posed in the form of rhetorical questions. To investi-

gate them thoroughly, they must be broken down into further compo-
nents for detailed analysis. It is also the case that it will be difficult to
gather good data on them. Yet despite these considerations, the an-
swers to them will be quite important.

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Conclusion

In 2004, Prof. Christopher Henshilwood of the University of Bergen

discovered in South Africa what appears to be the oldest known jewel-
ry—75,000 year old pierced and ocher-tinted tick shells. His discovery
suggested the importance of jewelry and other forms of interpersonal
communication and representation. Henshilwood asserts that “once
symbolically mediated behavior was adopted by our ancestors it meant
communication strategies rapidly shifted, leading to the transmission of
individual and widely shared cultural values” (Graham 2004). If we
agree with Prof. Henshilwood’s assessment of the import of the initial
use of symbolic display technologies (in this case, tick shell decorative
jewelry), the implications for evolving practices of mobile communica-
tion technology may be even more significant than we generally as-
sume. Specifically, novel forms of widespread mediated communication
could alter the cultural values we embrace and transmit. They could
also transform social structure, interpersonal processes and land use in
ways we might neither anticipate nor desire.
The lines of investigation sketched above are important since
the illuminate understand current and emerging social practices and
their implications. Mobile technology allows unprecedented permuta-
tions and concatenation of innovations in communication at the levels
of place and space, individual, group and mass, and creative new serv-
ices offered from a range of entities from amateur creators to gigantic
corporations. Therefore, we have an opportunity to structure services
and social practices in a self-aware way that should be conducive to
outcomes that are better than would otherwise be the case.
I would, for the purposes of argument, go further and suggest
that it might be the case that the mobile communication is also likely to
be a transformative technology.

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