ABSTRACT
The word symbiosis has its roots in biology and ecology to represent a close association, usually of two unrelated organisms, that benefits at least one of the organisms without harming the other. It is a relationship of joining and dependence where some benefit is gained by those involved. I use this term to highlight the intensity of the changed state of mind experienced by the mobile phone user resulting from contact with a known other. This sense of joining, an almost palpable form of social cohesion, is a mobile symbiosis, which may lessen the user’s inhibitions. This, in combination with diminished self-awareness, may lead mobile phone users to take conscious and unconscious risks. Mobile symbiosis alters the perception of the current environment and may be a precursor to risk-taking.
