Taken for Grantedness: The Embedding of Mobile Communication into Society (The MIT Press)

In This Book, Rich Ling Explores The Process By Which The Mobile Phone Has Become Embedded In Society, Comparing It To Earlier Technologies That Changed The Character Of Our Social Interaction And, Along The Way, Became Taken For Granted. By Examining The Similarities And Synergies Between The Mobile Phone And The Clock And The Automobile, Ling Sheds A More General Light On How Technical Systems Become Embedded In Society And How They Support Social Interaction Within The Closest Sphere Of Friends And Family. The Forgotten Mobile Phone -- Dewitt Clinton's Grand Salute Versus Technologies Of Social Mediation -- My Idea Of Heaven Is A Daily Routine : Coordination And The Development Of Mechanical Timekeeping -- Four-wheeled Bugs With Detachable Brains : The Constraining Freedom Of The Automobile -- If I Didn't Have A Mobile Phone Then I Would Be Stuck : The Diffusion Of Mobile Communication -- We Are Either Abused Or Spoiled By It--it Is Difficult To Say : Constructing Legitimacy For The Mobile Phone -- Mobile Communication And Its Readjustment Of The Social Ecology -- It Is Not Your Desire That Decides : The Reciprocal Expectations Of Mobile Telephony -- Digital Gemeinschaft In The Era Of Cars, Clocks, And Mobile Phones. Rich Ling. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.