Implications of mobile phones on social interactions, social cohesion and collective action

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1 Implications of mobile phones on social interactions, social cohesion and collective action Rich Ling IT University of Copenhagen

2 Outline Introduction Ritual interaction and social cohesion Social cohesion Bounded solidarity and mobile communication Technologies of social mediation Conclusion (a not very day to day illustration)

3 Outline Introduction Ritual interaction and social cohesion Social cohesion Bounded solidarity and mobile communication Technologies of social mediation Conclusion (a not very day to day illustration)

4 To what extent and how do mobile phones really change the ways in which citizens cooperate on day to day issues?

5 Outline Introduction Ritual interaction and social cohesion Social cohesion Bounded solidarity and mobile communication Technologies of social mediation Conclusion (a not very day to day illustration)

6 Mobile telephony facilitates sociation/cohesion in the intimate sphere Durkheimian rituals The elementary forms of religious life Collins and ritual interaction Failed rituals Copresence Goffmanian everyday ritual interaction W. Lloyd Warner (Yankee city) The nature of deference and demeanor Bounded solidarity An instrument of the intimate sphere Digital Gemeineschaft Direct and mediated friendships Early internet dating studies by Spears, Milardo, Duck Teen studies of friendship circles

Lloyd Warner (Yankee city) The nature of deference and demeanor Bounded solidarity An instrument of the intimate sphere

7 Sociology and the electronic revolution Technology and social cohesion: A major project of sociology Mechanical and organic solidarity (Durkheim) Bourgeoisie and the proletariat (Marx) Gemeinschaft and geselleschaft (Tönnes) Traditional and rational society (Weber) Simmel s question How is society possible? Durkheim s answer: Ritual

the proletariat (Marx) Gemeinschaft and geselleschaft (Tönnes) Traditional and

8 By themselves, individual consciousnesses are actually closed to one another... For the communication... to end in a communion that is, in the fusion of all the individual feelings into a common one the signs that express those feelings must come together in one single resultant... It is by shouting the same cry, saying the same words, and performing the same action in regard to the same object that they arrive at and experience agreement. - Durkheim The elementary forms of religious life 1912 (1995), pp

feelings must come together in one single resultant.

9 Durkheimian ritual Not obsessive behavior Ritual interaction It is the mutually recognized focus on a process that engenders a common mood Barriers to those who are not a part of the group Ritual interaction creates a common recognition of shared status A minor transgression against norms Gain comadarie by mutual participation Power dimensions Failed rituals (Randall Collins) Ritual is a catalyst for social cohesion Most successful rituals are copresent (Collins)

recognition of shared status A minor transgression against norms Gain comadarie by mutual participation Power

10 From Durkheim to Goffman Durkheimian rituals are authored by third parties Priests Rock musicians Political operatives Empresarios Goffmanian rituals authored by the participants Small scale or one on one For Goffman ritual is a continual part of daily life

Empresarios Goffmanian rituals authored by the participants

11 ... rituals performed as stand-ins for supernatural entities are everywhere in decay, as are extensive ceremonial agendas involving long strings of obligatory rites. What remains are brief rituals one individual performs for and to another, attesting to civility and good will on the performer s part and the recipient s possession of a small [sense of] of sacredness. What remains, in brief, are interpersonal rituals -Goffman Relations in public 1971, 61

What remains are brief rituals one individual performs for and to another, attesting to civility and good will on

12 Outline Introduction Ritual interaction and social cohesion Social cohesion Bounded solidarity and mobile communication Technologies of social mediation Conclusion (a not very day to day illustration)

13 Rituals and mobile communication Durkheim, Goffman and Collins did not examine electronically mediated interaction Durkheim worked in an era before large scale mediated interaction Goffman focused on face to face situations Collins was dismissive of mediated ritual Ling in New Tech, New Ties...

before large scale mediated interaction Goffman focused on face to face

14 New Tech New Ties Point of departure is ritual interaction as in Durkheim, Goffman and Collins Mobile communication encourages social coordination A venue where we engage in ritual interaction Humor, gossip, flirting, touching bases, sharing cultural artifacts Mobile communication tightens social bonds in the intimate sphere and encourages bounded solidarity

ritual interaction Humor, gossip, flirting, touching bases, sharing cultural artifacts

15 Special characteristics of mobile telephony Call to people, not to places One to one interaction (á la Goffman) Able to have more continual and nuanced interactions Interlaced within the context of other copresent situations Can be problematic for local interaction

continual and nuanced interactions Interlaced within the context

16 Percent of texts/calls (cumulative) going to friends Percent of all texts/calls Calls SMS Link strength (decreasing) N = Rich Ling, Troels Bertel, and Pål Sundsøy, The socio demographics of texting: An analysis of traffic data, New Media & Society (2011 (available in online first)).

N = 49 895 Rich Ling, Troels Bertel, and Pål Sundsøy, The socio demographics of

17 Outline Introduction Ritual interaction and social cohesion Social cohesion Bounded solidarity and mobile communication Technologies of social mediation Conclusion (a not very day to day illustration)

18 Personally useful Necessity Structured part of social interaction: Taken for granted

19 Durkheim on social facts Facticity Social facts: They come to each one of us from outside and can sweep us along in spite of ourselves. If perhaps I abandon myself to them I may not be conscious of the pressure that they are exerting upon me, but that pressure makes its presence felt immediately [when] I attempt to struggle against them (Durkheim 1938, 53). The first and most fundamental rule is: Consider social facts as things

If perhaps I abandon myself to them I may not be conscious of the pressure that they are exerting upon me,

20 Weber s iron cage Evolution... the care for external goods should only lie on the shoulders...like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment. But fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage.

21 Technologies of social mediation (Technologies with which we mediate sociation) Critical mass Supporting ideology Changes in the social ecology Reciprocal expectations (cohesion?)

22 You are a problem for me if you don t have a mobile phone (The Katz proposition)

23 Mechanical timekeeping as a technology of social mediation Replaced the audible system with the more abstract system of time Used for the coordination of different tasks Cut through the need for a lot of different audible systems Allowed for the coordination of more complex (factory based) activities.

25 Bus punctuality in Delft

26 Mobile communication as a social mediation technology Mechanical time keeping Mobile communication Critical mass Legitimation Social ecology Reciprocal expectations

27 Outline Introduction Ritual interaction and social cohesion Social cohesion Bounded solidarity and mobile communication Technologies of social mediation Conclusion (a not very day to day illustration)

28 22 July in Oslo

29 Call sequence by link strength, 22 July 2011 in Norway 1,2 1,15 1,1 1,05 1 0,95 0, , Fraction of people contacting their friend (compared to average) Dt in minutes (where Dt=0 is time of explosion) Based on 1.6 million active subscribers

30 Distance from bomb (km) - receivers 14:30-15:26 15:26-16:30 16:30-17:30 Distance from bomb (km) - callers 17:30-18:30 Calls within Oslo increased by a factor of 4 Calls to Oslo and from increased by a factor of 4 Calling between people outside Oslo to others also outside Oslo increased by a factor of 4

Auguste Comte (1798-1857) evolution of social thought from religion to natural law to a reliance on observations on the five senses

Auguste Comte (1798-1857) evolution of social thought from religion to natural law to a reliance on observations on the five senses Early Contributors to Sociology Auguste Comte (1798-1857) coined term sociology positive philosophy==>positivism evolution of social thought from religion to natural law to a reliance on observations on