ABSTRACT
The study reported here began its life in a series of conversations during the fall of 2004, as I was nishing my master’s thesis, and looking around for an interesting and fundable PhD project. I had given a presentation of my MA thesis work (a study of an online community) at a company that I was secretly hoping to convince to fund part of my PhD project. After the presentation, I was talking to a senior manager from the company, explaining my interest in new media and interpersonal communication when she interrupted me. She had just thought of something that would interest me: the mobile phone had ruined the equality of her marriage.
