19 - Conclusion: making meaning of mobiles – a theory of Apparatgeist

Summary

Span of consequences

The preceding chapters analyze how mobile communication changes the nature and quality of social behavior and organization. These changes are not restricted to the industrialized countries, but are pandemic. Whenever the mobile phone chirps, it alters the traditional nature of public space and the traditional dynamics of private relationships. The technology itself offers people an opportunity to modify preconceived uses, and, consequently, the way in which its design and vector develop relies on these modifications. This chapter spotlights selected changes and their significance. Our purpose is not only to make sense of the myriad social and thematic issues raised but also to suggest a novel theoretical orientation.

The contributors to this volume demonstrate the prima facie evidence that times are changing owing to the mobile phone. Communication among teenagers is more intense, and novel forms of intimacy and distancing emerge. Relationships between teens and parents are altered by the existence of the mobile phone. In social relationships among adults, mobile communication leads to different forms of coordination, cooperation and conflict. The organizational structure of businesses is changing as well. In the physically mobile, but socially “in touch” workforce, corporate managers must deal with new forms of supervision, while employees must deal with new forms of monitoring. Questions of folkways, norms and cultures of adoption and opposition also arise. New forms of marketing and advertising emerge that prey on the human consciousness.