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SHOULD I TEXT OR SHOULD I TALK? TRANSFORMATIONS OF COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICES BY MOBILE PHONES Print E-mail

 

Tadej Praprotnik

Abstract

This article presents contemporary transformations of communicative practices among individuals. Communication is a primary vehicle for establishing and maintaining relationships, so it is of vital importance to understand why we communicate in certain ways. The article firstly presents the global climate of modern relationships, which are conducted by social media platforms. The technological convergence of various devices provides additional support for reinforcing communication and networking. Features offered by new media devices (collaboration, networking) are presented, along with current practices, which reflect certain problems at the level of usage. The relationship between society and technology is explored, and the fact that our usage of technologies is a reflection of society’s and individuals’ key understandings and orientations is stressed. In line with these remarks the article interprets modern conceptions of relationships that are becoming mere “connections”. Namely, our communication practices of text messaging and e-mailing are to a certain extent a reflection of contemporary orientations. Individuals may like a company, but nevertheless they like distance too. Our modern “connections” are therefore quite intentional. One of the article’s conclusions is that by using “poor” mobile devices (smartphones enable us to send messages of up to 160 characters) we mask/disguise our own unpreparedness to engage in complex and “exhaustive” communication (i.e. face-to-face or phone call conversations). This way our own intentions can be ascribed to “poor” technology. We are not confronted with our own intention to be connected, but still at a distance. Additionally, the article also stresses other contextual factors for communication practices, from technological constraints to communicative norms. Nevertheless the usage of technologies is at our command and it reflects the type of relationships we are looking for.

Keywords: new media, mobile phones, e-mail, text messaging, interpersonal relationships

Tadej Praprotnik, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the University of Primorska (The Faculty of Humanities). Contact address: pratadej (at) gmail.com

Cite this article:

Praprotnik Tadej. SHOULD I TEXT OR SHOULD I TALK? TRANSFORMATIONS OF COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICES BY MOBILE PHONES. Innovative Issues and Approaches in Social Sciences, vol.10, no.1:32-53, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.12959/issn.1855-0541.IIASS-2017-no1-art2

Digital Object Identifier(DOI): http://dx.doi.org/10.12959/issn.1855-0541.IIASS-2017-no1-art2

View full text in pdf: http://www.iiass.com/pdf/IIASS-2017-no1-art2.pdf

 

 

 

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