ABSTRACT
As alluded to in the opening vignette, the smartphone is ubiquitous among young Muslim women in Blaagaarden as in many other places in today’s technologically mediated world. Texting (iMessage, WhatsApp, SMS, etc.), calling, snapping, and checking “Insta” (Instagram) and Facebook were done frequently and at all hours by most of the author informants. It is a semi-public online space, as opposed to the physical private space of the living room, and the private online space of the Snapchat platform. Smartphones became widespread following the release of the Apple iPhone in 2007, and most smartphones produced from 2012 onward enable wireless access to high-speed mobile broadband, fiber optic cables running under water and across landscapes. In technologically mediated images, messages, and likes, one is “given time” by someone. Discussions and conflicts ensued if people felt over time that the attention they deserved could be “tracked” as going in another’s direction in online platforms.
