ABSTRACT
An analysis, even rapid, of the scientific literature produced so far on the mobile phone enlightens the reader on significant themes regarding the diffusion and use of this device, but, among them, we might recall three very key issues: the question of time, the notion of the separation between public and private spaces, and the development of the individualization process. The debate on time has described the mobile phone as the emblem of the zeitgeist (Katz and Aakhus 2002), has discussed the new category of presence-absence (Fortunati 2002; Gergen 2002), and explored the concept of rhythm (Haddon 2004; Licoppe and Smoreda 2005; Ling 2004; Sørensen and Pica 2005), which derives from the temporal qualities of interpersonal relationships (Werner and Haggard 1985). The question of private and public has been debated since the beginning of the discourse on the mobile phone. In fact, this debate has registered the big changes that the use of the mobile phone has provoked in the perception and social definition of what is public and what is private (Raiti 2007). It shows how mobile phone use puts into crisis the division between the public and the private space, which has been one of the key aspects of modernization. Finally, the question of individualization has emerged since the second wave of mobile phone diffusion and adoption, given the rapid transformation of this device from being a mobile technology to a personal technology. This shift in mobile phone identity has accompanied and enhanced the individualization process in Europe. The mobile phone in the everyday life of the individual more than any other machine has meant ‘one machine, one individual’, as well as the strengthening of the individual communication and information capability. The mass appropriation of the mobile phone is explained by the powerful support that this device has offered to the individualization process, enhancing the sense of power and freedom of the individual.
