ABSTRACT
Hyun-kim had been dating Sang-hee for under a week when one day at University Sang-hee started to decorate her new boyfriend's mobile phone (both inside and outside the device) with cute characters. Within a month, Sang-hee had updated the camera phone's pictures on Hyun-kim's phone, making sure there were plenty of pictures of them together as well as flattering self-portraits (sel-ca). This move was then followed by Sang-hee's colonialisation of Hyun-kim's social media — his SNS Cyworld minihompy and Facebook soon overflowed with a plethora of images of them together. As is often the case with social media, this new content spoke to multiple publics. It is Sang-hee speaking to Hyun-kim, reminding him of their relationship, and it is Sang-hee and Hyun-kim together, speaking to their other intimates of their relationship. Much like an engagement ring on the finger, which is always present and tacitly tells people that the owner is ‘taken’, Hyun-kim's mobile media highlighted and documented Sang-hee's intimate relationship. The piéce de résistance was when Sang-hee took a picture of her eye and saved it as a screen saver on Hyun-kim's mobile phone. Wherever he went she was always present and omnipresent. Watching. Listening. Waiting.
