The age of the thumb: A cultural reading of mobile technologies from Asia
Genevieve Bell · transcript Verlag eBooks · 2005
Genevieve Bell develops these themes of identity management further to look across Asian societies to see how the mobile phone is used to maintain individual identities and social roles within families and tight-knit social groupings.Bell documents how the technological advances of the mobile phone enable new ways of navigating the often complex social structure of Asian society.Rigid hierarchies in such cultures can be more easily deferred to when the name of the caller is displayed to the user before a call is taken.Bell also discusses how the mobile phone is used specifically to negotiate social interaction between family members, not only in maintaining hierarchies but also in providing a sense of security.Mobile phones are bought for children so that they can be used to communicate with them, but also as a sort of game that parents perform with their children, whereby the phone provides a constant umbilical link spooled out from parent to child that the parent is able to use to reassure him/herself of their child's safety.