Transcript Person

Mobile Communication, the
Internet and the Net of Social
Relations
Friedrich Krotz
University of Erfurt, Germany
Changing the Perspective:
Analyzing the Mobile Phone
vs.
Analyzing the Everyday life of
the people
Overview
1. Mediatization: becoming mediated by
media
2. Changing Social Relations by Mobile
Phone and the Internet
3. But different changes by Mobile Phone
and the Internet, refering to relations
4. Conclusions: Mediatization
1 Mediatization: becoming
mediated by the media
Changing communication in society, culture and by individuals
Mediatization
• Means a long term process of changing
conditions of communication
• as new media come up and old media
are used in new ways and so the media
environments of the people are
changing
• new forms of communication today
(mainly: Mobile Net, Internet, Interactive
Communication and the Mix of all)
Mediatization
• As a construct (like Globalization and
Individualization) to describe the
development of the digital media
becoming a part of culture and society
• As a micro concept: to describe the
changing everyday life of men and women
by more and more using digital media
• As a macro concept to describe the
changing of economy, culture, society
Everyday Life in the industrial society
FAMILY
SCHOOL/WORK
THE OLD
MEDIA
HOBBIES
REPRODUCTION:
SLEEPING,
EATING....
FRIENDS
Telephon
letters
Everyday life in the media society
FRIENDS
REPRODUCTION
WORK/SCHOOL
FAMILY
The Media
HOBBIE
S
Consequences
• All areas of life are concerned: leisure and
work,
• new “realities” and situations came up
• new orientations by reference and
membership groups
• new experiences, roles, social relations
• New forms of identity and of forms of living
together
2 Changing social relations by
Mobile Phone and Internet
In the industrial Society
Most people mainly lived in an net of personal,
social and parasocial relations
• Personal Relations maintained by Face-to-facecommunication,
• With media of interpersonal communication
being helpful from time to time
• Maintained by mass media (parasocial relations)
• (all media help to maintain social relations
between social groups)
The Net of (para-)social/personal
Relations
Ally McBeal
Aunt
Working
Colleague
Mother
Person
Aquaintance
Partner
Neighbour
Friend
Social Net by Membership- and
Reference Groups
Social groups/classes …
Hobbygroup
Fans of the same
Soccer club
Team at the job
/Peergroup
Person
Family
Fans liking the
same Music style, soap ...
Religion
The digitally mediated everyday life
Aunt
Hobbygroup
Ally McBeal
Team at the job
/Peergroup
Fans of the same
Soccer club
Working
Colleague
Mother
Person
Aquaintance
Partner
Neighbour
Family
Friend
Religion
Fans liking the
Same Music style
In the upcoming Media Society
• The net of everyday life interaction and
communication
• is intertwined and intermingled by a net of
digitally mediated forms of communication
• especially by mobile phone and
Internetrelated PC (more and more
refering to interactive communication)
• but how and with which effects?
Thesis: changing situations of
Communication
For both the Internet and the mobile phone:
• The use changes the situation a person is in
as it separates from the present persons
• The use in addition produces a simultaneous
second situation as it connects with another
person
• Even the presence of a media influences the
situation: It is a latent possibility. It serves to
present myself in a specific way and to
manage impression. It serves to control the
situation.
Mobile phone and a given prior
situation
Common faceto-faceSituation
Person B
Person A
Person C
Person D
Adresses a specific
person
Control of situation
Computer/Internet and a given prior
situation
Home/Office
Household
mebers or
office
colleagues
Person A
Enter an
open
„virtual“
space
You must not adress
a person, thus open
for new relations
Politics of the
family/the office
Conclusion
• Mediatization: We more and more are in
such simultaeous situations
• Both media
• Separate from the actual situation - but
what type of situation?
• Connects with other persons - but what
type of persons?
• Helps to control the situation - but what
type of situation?
3 Differences between Internet/PC and
Mobile Phone refering to relations
• Thesis
• Mobile phone and Internet/PC
affect situation in a different way:
Each changes another type of
situations and each connect to
another type of additional
situation
Thus
• Each of them is important for different
situations
– which it changes and
– which it creates
• by technical features
• by Culture
The Internet
Internet/PC
• Traditionally and by culture, the computer
is seen as a stand allone computer, which
may have a connection to the Internet, in
addition („Internet inside of PC“)
• Technically, Internet/PC is mostly used at
home or in office, as they are not so easy
to transport
• Thus, Internet/PC
• Is important for the politics of the family
and organizes difference, e.g. between
man and woman
• separates from relations to colleagues,
household and family (specific place or
room)
• Using the internet is organized as entering
a virtual space, there you can maintain
existing relations, but you also can start
new relations
Mobile Phone
The mobile phone
• Is culturally understood as a phone
(although it is a little computer). Therefor, it
seen to be used mainly to speak with a
selected other person (or send him or her
a SMS), the adress of which you know
• Technically it may be used (nearly)
everywhere, as the connecting nets are
everywhere and it is easy to transport
Thus, the mobile phone
• Mostly plays a role to control situations and
manage impressions outside of home
• Mostly separates from unknown people in
unknown situations/does not disturb relations
• Using the mobile phone means you must adress
a specific person with his/her phone number – it
connects mainly with known persons
• You can only maintain existing relations
Personal Relations by
Internet/PC
Mobile phone
• Separates from relations to
family/colleagues
• Is important for the politics of
family
• Using the Internet is organized
to enter a specific „virtual“
space
• There one can maintain
personal relations, but you one
can also start new relations
• Separates from often unknown
persons/ no relations
• Helps to Controll the situation
/manage impressions
• Signalizes a life style
• Connects with known persons
an identifier of which you must
know
• Helps to maintain relations in
mobile times
4 Conclusions: Mediatization
• Every individual lives in a space of
possible contacts
• and in a net of personal, social and
parasocial relations, based on all types of
communication contacts:
– Interpersonal face to face
– Interpersonal mediated
– Parasocial
– interactive/artificial
Starting from the everyday life of
people we know:
1. There is a space of possible
communication contacts
2. a net of social, personal and parasocial
relations based on realized
communication contacts, more and more
by different media
Social, Parasocial, Personal
Relations
3. are important for social integration, the
roles of a person, his or her experiences,
reflection, inner dialog and thus for his or
her social character and his identy
4. „A person is a society in miniature, as
she or he consists of the roles and
experiences made in roles“ (Lindesmith
and Strauss, following Tamotsu
Shibutani)
• This space of possible contacts and also
the net of relations is probably changed by
the digital media
• But these changes depend on which
media is used and which cultural and
technical conditions are given
• Not only relations change, but in a similar
way the orientation given by reference
groups and membership groups
As a result about Mediatization:
1. The communicational and relational net of
everyday live is overlapped by the net of
digitalized communication
2. An intertwining and intermingling net of
everyday life including digital media comes into
existence, which gets more and more
importance/different influences:
3. The mobile phone separates from more
unknown situations and helps to maintain
existing relations
4. The Internet/PC separates from given more
stable structures and offers also new relations
If In/PC and Mobile phone are
of future importance
• we can conclude that different types of
new persons will come into existence,
depending on their media use
• How stable are they? How different? It
depends on what?
• This needs long term empirical research
• as a result of Mediatization/Element of
Medium Theory
We are living in a huge
experiment
Who Controls?
(Thanks for your attention)
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