Supermodernity

In my last post, I discussed the development of the phone from a device attached to a set time and space to one attached to any time and space occurred. When the phone was untethered from its The chunk of private space formally attached to the personal landline telephone entered into public space because the walls of the contained private space were no longer there to contain the sound.

Private Space becomes Public

"Once the mobile phone was un-tethered from its cord it was free to colonize the realm of the mobile, or those situations outside of the office or home" (Rheingold 2004).

The disembodied chunk of private space is responsible for making public cell phone use so annoying. This colonization of personal time and space has major social consequences; cell phone users that clash with the privacy of others often do not notice they are doing so.

The cell phone blocks the ability of the user to understand what others in real-life are experiencing when they are nearby. Cell phone use also crowds social space by enlarging the social sphere of the user. A user introduces a virtual person into the nearby social sphere.

Though this person is really a disembodied voice that the individual responds to, the response of the caller to the call-ee is not compressed, and the decompressed dialogue takes up more space than a simple face-to-face interaction. A face-to-face interaction takes up two seats in a social setting, instead of one. The social interaction of a cell phone user takes up one and a half seats.

Compression of Multiple Social Groups into a Small Space

Though this person is really a disembodied voice that the individual responds to, the response of the caller to the call-ee is not compressed, and the decompressed dialogue takes up more space than a simple face-to-face interaction. A face-to-face interaction takes up two seats in a social setting, instead of one. The social interaction of a cell phone user takes up one and a half seats.

Face Saving Mechanisms

A society’s cultural norms define the social forces that push humans to interact in a way that is congruent with accepted social rules. Else, the individual may encounter what Erving Goffman (1982) describes as 'losing face'. Goffman describes the adherence to these norms of behavior and to societally instated rules such as 'face-maintenance or 'face-saving'. The modern individual must practice the techniques of 'face-saving' every day, especially in the public sphere, where the individual is surrounded by strangers.

Ordinarily, face maintenance is a technique that makes public spaces livable and safe, because it keeps uncertainty in social interactions to a minimum and in doing so reduces the stress of the modern individual. "Face-management is a condition of interaction, not an objective" (Goffman, 1982:12). If the rules of 'face-saving' are not followed, the individual may risk 'losing-face', which could make the individual disliked or societally rejected. 'Face-saving' is essential to maintaining order in modern society. It keeps individual movements flowing smoothly and regularly, and it also keeps negative altercations among individuals to a minimum.

"To study face-saving is to study the traffic rules of social interaction. One learns about the code of social adherence as one moves across the social landscape. But as the individual travels he does not learn where he is going, or why he wants to get there" (Goffman, 1982:12).

A pointed look at a mother with a crying child is enough to let the mother know exactly what society thinks of her. A sharp look at a staring stranger works in the same way. Non-verbal cues help individuals waste less time in letting others understand what correct and incorrect behaviors are.

The rules of 'face-saving' work in a society that is not interrupted by the private space that the cell phone brings to the public space. The cell phone user is not closed off to the considerations of others, but occupied in a virtual conversation. Users who talk loudly on cell phones do so because of their inability to perceive how their words affect each other. Richard Ling described social settings as a web of front and back channel interactions. He explains that the use of a mobile telephone in these spaces breaks in on the “complex of intended and unintended front and back channel communications that make up social interaction” (Ling 2002:5).

The light modern state of the cell phone helps them to transcend the heaviness that their body had taken on when introduced to the 'heavily modern' state.

Modern information, or ‘light information’ is only accessible by hybrids, or those who are capable of liminally transforming into technosocial hybrids or ‘light industrial’ objects. It is not enough to simply liminally transition. "An entire set of new social roles have developed around the use of technology. Whereas technology used to be only for 'nerds', it is now ubiquitous, and mobile phones have made their presence felt in almost ever region of the world” (Plant 2005:26).