ABSTRACT
Introduction Media-and not at least the mobile phone-have immense influ-
ence on how we communicate and live together. Eventually, media influence interpersonal and intimate relationships. But, media usage is also influenced by the kind of relationship between communication partners. Humans are not “exposed” to the media in a trivial sense. Basically, communication media can be considered as enabling restriction, with possibilities as well as constraints in the center of this model (Short et al., 1976). The crucial point here is how people handle the constraints and utilize the possibilities, and in this study we assume that relationships enable individuals to negotiate the constraints of mediated communication. Different people in different social relationships incorporate and use media differently in their daily lives. This indication toward social framing and its influence on media usage shall in no way mean that technological determinism is replaced by social determinism. Rather, it indicates that, in the context of technological and social framings of media usage, a creative, willful, and sometimes also unruly adoption and usage of media is taking place: this forms the basis of a constructive media perspective. In the Anglo-American
world this has lately been stated as the “social shaping of technology” (Williams and Edge, 1996). Consequently, we consider relationships as an important aspect of the social shaping of mobile communication processes: relationships influence the way communication media are used, just as communication media have an effect on relationships (see also Campbell and Russo, 2003).
