Thirteen ‘Wherever you go, wherever you are, I am with you ... connected with my mobile’: the use of mobile text messages for the maintenance of family and romantic relations
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Bernadette Kneidinger-Müller
Abstract
This chapter examines how smartphones may function as a relevant digital tool for maintaining both family and romantic relationships. Using data from a quantitative diary study and follow-up qualitative interviews with twenty-four smartphone users aged 20–30 years as a part of a research teaching course at a German university in June 2015, the chapter considers the different reasons for using text messages. It first provides an overview of relationship maintenance in the age of mobile communication before discussing the research methodology and the findings. The results show that smartphones are used as everyday companions by the majority of respondents and allow perpetual contact with loved ones, independent of time or space. The study also revealed the content of the text messages and the perception that smartphones and texting pose a threat to relationships. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the study.
Abstract
This chapter examines how smartphones may function as a relevant digital tool for maintaining both family and romantic relationships. Using data from a quantitative diary study and follow-up qualitative interviews with twenty-four smartphone users aged 20–30 years as a part of a research teaching course at a German university in June 2015, the chapter considers the different reasons for using text messages. It first provides an overview of relationship maintenance in the age of mobile communication before discussing the research methodology and the findings. The results show that smartphones are used as everyday companions by the majority of respondents and allow perpetual contact with loved ones, independent of time or space. The study also revealed the content of the text messages and the perception that smartphones and texting pose a threat to relationships. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the study.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures and tables v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Acknowledgements xiv
- The family has become a network xv
- Connecting families? An introduction 1
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Theoretical and methodological approaches
- Theoretical perspectives on technology and society: implications for understanding the relationship between ICTs and family life 21
- Recursive approaches to technology adoption, families, and the life course: actor network theory and strong structuration theory 41
- Weaving family connections on and offline: the turn to networked individualism 59
- Oversharing in the time of selfies: an aesthetics of disappearance? 81
- The application of digital methods in a life course approach to family studies 97
- Cross-disciplinary research methods to study technology use, family, and life course dynamics: lessons from an action research project on social isolation and loneliness in later life 113
- From object to instrument: technologies as tools for family relations and family research 133
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Empirical approaches
- Use of communication technology to maintain intergenerational contact: toward an understanding of ‘digital solidarity’ 159
- Careful families and care as ‘kinwork’: an intergenerational study of families and digital media use in Melbourne, Australia 181
- Floating narratives: transnational families and digital storytelling 201
- Rescue chains and care talk among immigrants and their left-behind parents 219
- ‘Wherever you go, wherever you are, I am with you ... connected with my mobile’: the use of mobile text messages for the maintenance of family and romantic relations 237
- Permeability of work-family borders: effects of information and communication technologies on work-family conflict at the childcare stage in Japan 255
- Digital connections and family practices 273
- Index 295
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures and tables v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Acknowledgements xiv
- The family has become a network xv
- Connecting families? An introduction 1
-
Theoretical and methodological approaches
- Theoretical perspectives on technology and society: implications for understanding the relationship between ICTs and family life 21
- Recursive approaches to technology adoption, families, and the life course: actor network theory and strong structuration theory 41
- Weaving family connections on and offline: the turn to networked individualism 59
- Oversharing in the time of selfies: an aesthetics of disappearance? 81
- The application of digital methods in a life course approach to family studies 97
- Cross-disciplinary research methods to study technology use, family, and life course dynamics: lessons from an action research project on social isolation and loneliness in later life 113
- From object to instrument: technologies as tools for family relations and family research 133
-
Empirical approaches
- Use of communication technology to maintain intergenerational contact: toward an understanding of ‘digital solidarity’ 159
- Careful families and care as ‘kinwork’: an intergenerational study of families and digital media use in Melbourne, Australia 181
- Floating narratives: transnational families and digital storytelling 201
- Rescue chains and care talk among immigrants and their left-behind parents 219
- ‘Wherever you go, wherever you are, I am with you ... connected with my mobile’: the use of mobile text messages for the maintenance of family and romantic relations 237
- Permeability of work-family borders: effects of information and communication technologies on work-family conflict at the childcare stage in Japan 255
- Digital connections and family practices 273
- Index 295
