Between the Seams

Once solely a mode of telephonic communication, the mobile phone has grown to encompass numerous forms of communication and media. ¹ As an example of convergence par excellence, the mobile phone—especially in the form of the smartphone—is now ushering in new promises of seamlessness between engagement with technology, Internet access and everyday common experiences. ² Up until now, the terms “convergence” and “seamlessness” have been used relatively unproblematically in industry to highlight design innovation in mobile technology. Seamlessness has been focused on as a means of making communication more efficient and the coordination of tasks more streamlined. Yet design innovation has also yielded social and psychological consequences of the engagement with technology, just as existing forms of media practice and intimacy have informed design features. ³ Here convergence is not just a technological phenomenon, but it also has social and cultural dimensions. This volume attempts to expand upon understandings of “seamlessness” as a mode for negotiating various forms of presence, identity, politics and place in an age of so-called smartphones through cultural, psychological and media studies perspectives.