ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one aspect of oral communication, namely openings and closings of conversations, a topic earlier discussed in the literature in the context of traditional landline telephony research and body-to-body conversations. The first transformation of the mobile phone was from a tool for oral communication to a personal technology. Users began individualizing their devices through, for example, mobile phones’ ringtones, choice of cases and opening screen photos, and early use of stickers or straps. The second transformation in mobile phone communication has been an increase in the level of personal closeness that interlocutors are willing to express in public space. The third transformative element is the addition of Internet access through mobile phones. A final transformation has resulted from users’ growing familiarity with mobile phones. In the early days of diffusion of the mobile phone, people tended to feel the need to be in perpetual contact.
