Mobiles in public: Social interaction in a smartphone era

Abstract

This article reports on the findings from a field study of mobile phone use among dyads in public. Replicating an originally published field study from 2005, this study highlights how mobile phones and use have changed in the last 15 years and demonstrates the ways that mobile phones are used to both detract and enhance social interactions. Drawing on the notions of cellphone crosstalk and caller hegemony, we identify behavioral responses to mobile phones and the use of mobile phones by others, which help to manage both face-to-face and mediated social expectations of responsiveness. Based on observational fieldwork and interviews, we identify specific behavioral categories that demonstrate how social vulnerability and ostracism due to mobile phone use may be mitigated through parallel or collective mobile phone use. We also expand the original concepts of cellphone crosstalk and caller hegemony to mediated crosstalk and notification hegemony to account for contemporary changes in the sociotechnical mobile landscape.