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1 Patsydixon@Gmail.Com / +31655881413 The Affective Turn of Mobile Phones A study of affect in mobile-mediated communication University of Amsterdam MA Media & Culture (New Media track) Date: 15 August 2011 Name: Natalie Dixon Student Number: 6248551 Contact: [email protected] / +31655881413 Thesis Supervisor: Geert Lovink Second Reader: Jan Simons 1 Abstract The line between man and computer is no longer drawn at the ability to think but the capacity to feel. With the focus on emotion in human-computer interaction, research has extended past the cognitive to understand new aspects of human experience. This thesis studies the affective turn of mobile phones using interviews with couples and an online survey. The focus is not limited to the mobile’s role in mediating emotion or as an object of affection due to its contents, but points to it as a stand-alone affective actor. This thesis argues that mobiles are not simply inert objects that only respond to our whims and wants – they too have a presence. They move us in the same way that people can “move” each other – they are energetic participants in our assembly of human and non humans. As a result, users rarely view mobiles as mere technological devices but rather as natural beings, ones that have expressions – derived from the presence they create. This thesis argues that mobiles transfer affect, emit or radiate an aura that generates anxiety, pleasure or calm in people or places. Our relationships with them, often characterised by paradoxes and ambivalence, is shifting away from the realm of mobile culture to become part of human nature. 2 Acknowledgements This thesis was made possible by the generous contributions of the people I interviewed and surveyed. They shared their time, private messages and thoughts about mobile communication with me. For this, I am extremely grateful. I’d also like to thank: Geert Lovink, my supervisor, for introducing me to the fascinating world of affect. Jane Vincent, Amparo Lasén, Gerard Goggin, Jan Simons and Melissa Gregg for their kind responses to my requests for information and comments. Arno Morland and Elloise Bennett for their invaluable insights. Koert van Mensvoort and Hendrik-Jan Grievink for introducing me to the concept of next nature. John Relihan (Media 24), for financial support during my studies in Amsterdam. Roger Dixon, for graciously proof reading this thesis. The countless strangers I have randomly photographed and interrogated about their mobile practices. Anthony, for turning his Blackberry to silent. 3 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................................5 Chapter 2: Literature review .........................................................................................8 2.1 Tethering and Relentless Connectivity ..............................................................................9 2.2 Subjectification and Surveillance....................................................................................... 11 2.3 New Codes of Social Interaction......................................................................................... 15 2.4 Face-to-Face Communication.............................................................................................. 18 2.5 Mediated Communication..................................................................................................... 19 2.6 Computer-Mediated-Communication Theories .......................................................... 21 2.7 Social Cohesion.......................................................................................................................... 23 2.8 Space and Time.......................................................................................................................... 25 2.9 Body Object ................................................................................................................................. 26 Chapter 3: The Affective Turn of Mobile phones ................................................. 29 3.1 Affect .............................................................................................................................................. 30 3.2 Emotion and Reason ............................................................................................................... 32 3.3 Emotion and Behaviour......................................................................................................... 35 3.4 Affective Computing................................................................................................................ 36 3.5 Recognizing Emotions............................................................................................................ 39 3.6 Mobile Phones as Affective Technologies...................................................................... 41 Chapter 4: Research....................................................................................................... 44 4.1 Introduction................................................................................................................................ 44 4.2 Reliability..................................................................................................................................... 45 4.3 Interviews.................................................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 5: Conclusion ................................................................................................... 67 Bibliography..................................................................................................................... 72 Appendix 1: Highlights of the ‘Me & My Mobile’ Survey .................................... 80 Appendix 2: Field Notes: Images ............................................................................... 89 4 Chapter 1: Introduction A rare few are unmoved by the charms of mobile phones. At the very least they are lauded for their abundant technical affordances1. At the very worst they are seen as facilitators for the darkest parts of our social behaviour. This thesis navigates the creases of mobile communication. It wiggles in between the incremental exchanges of couples living in the Netherlands and England, examining the conversations that make up the “wallpaper”2 of their everyday experiences and their deeper, more intimate expressions of love and affection. These interviews aim to test the label of mobile phones as affective technologies and to better understand the depth of our affective relationships with them. This approach of qualitative research was chosen to provide a thorough, thoughtful account of the lived and personal mobile experiences of couples – in their own words. The results were compared and contrasted with an online questionnaire of 118 respondents. The human behaviour that mobiles inspire is nothing short of fascinating. It has led me directly to this examination of the affective turn of mobile technology3. My everyday observations, general and formal inquiry revealed that mobile phones are perceived and treated less as technological tools but more as natural beings, even friends or colleagues. Simply the way people clutch phones, especially in foreign places, reveals at least anecdotally, how we4 have come to feel connected to others through these devices, showing the emotional significance we attach to them. Mobiles have 1 In 1988, Donald Norman appropriated the term “affordances” in the context of human–machine interaction to refer to just those action possibilities that are readily perceivable by an actor. (Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (New York: Basic Book, 1988) Preface xii.) 2 “Wallpaper” is a term used by Amparo Lasén to describe the more mundane types of mobile communication between people like meetings arrangements and information requests and small talk (Amparo Lasén “Affective Technologies – Emotions and Mobile Phones” Vodafone Receiver (Newbury: Vodafone, 2004) 5.) 3 “Mobile technology” refers to the device, its operating system, the software users download onto the device (including applications) and the services provided by the network provider. This term is used interchangeably with “wireless technology” in this thesis. 4 Mobile phones enjoy massive global ubiquity. Nearly 80% of the world’s population are mobile subscribers, 97 economies have over 100% mobile penetration. Arguably, only the infirm, poor, aged and infants do not have access to one. This is emphasised throughout this thesis by the purposeful, inclusive use of “we” and “our” when referring to mobile phones. (International Telecommunications Union, ‘Statshot’ Aug 2011, 11 Aug 2011 <http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/stats/2011/03/index.aspx>.) 5 become witnesses to our emotional lives – as the primary communication channel for mediating emotion.5 They are the accountants of our emotional transactions – storing our precious contacts, picture memories and ephemeral love letters.6 7 They also aid and abet our emotional processing, ultimately becoming the “architects of our intimacy.”8 Their capacity to affect and be affected remains a nascent field deserving further research. This study is informed by the small and select group of mobile researchers working in the field. Predominantly it relies on the inspiring research work of mobile scholars Amparo Lasén, Leopoldina Fortunati and Jane Vincent. Their work acknowledges mobiles as players generating and mediating emotion, as agents in and of
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