ABSTRACT
The study findings confirm the complexity of the question of whether the mobile phone connects or separates us. Rather than pointing to an unambiguous outcome of unity or rupture, the chapter uncovers how the mobile phone can connect the dyads in a close proximity and at a distance. The mobile phone can symbolically mean connection in the sense that it offers potentials for being connected beyond geographical constraints. However, this does not necessarily mean that the mobile phone functionally connects these college students to geographically dispersed friends. If a given relationship is perceived as special, that specialness, rather than the frequency of contact, is attributed to the sense of connection. The study extends the Apparatgeist theory by expanding its scope to the dyadic level of sense-making process. The question of whether the mobile phone connects or separates people needs to be considered within the complex dynamics of various social exigencies people face. And the notion of Apparatgeist allows us to discern the dynamics by drawing attention to symbolic meanings of the mobile phone created by micro-interpersonal interactions.
