ABSTRACT
Introduction Young people have been a popular subject for studies of mobile
communication (Caronia and Caron, 2004; Colombo and Scifo, 2005; Funston and MacNeill, 1999; Kasesniemi, 2003; Nyíri, 2005). The focus on youth can be observed in both academic literature and popular accounts of mobiles, but it is neither a natural, nor necessarily benign, form of attention. As Hjorth has argued, the interest in youth needs to be understood as part of a broader conflation of young people and new technologies, which has contributed to several problematic assumptions about youth culture and the social effects of mobiles (2009: 28). Yet there is little detailed examination of the development of these myths or how they have influenced mobile technology research. In this chapter, we wish to critically engage with one in particular: How the category of “youth” is deployed in debates about social connection and disconnection? Our aim is to contribute to the academic discourse on mobile communication by critiquing the hypervigilant concern with young people and the part they play in strengthening or attenuating community bonds.
