3 :: NEW TECHNOLOGIES,
NEW MOBILITIES
communications technologies is that aspects of social life are recast as adaptable,
flexible, transferable and self-organizing. New systems of mobile, virtual
communications permit fast, flexible sociabilities, which in turn cut to the core of
lived identities, relationships, intimacies, sexualities, careers and families. But it is
not only de-spatialized, dispersed and fluid communications, activated telephonically
at any moment, that come to the fore under conditions of intensive mobilities. What is
equally striking is the social impact of mobile communications upon the self and its
cultural coordinates. For what Sandra’s digital lifestyle reveals is a world of increased
negotiation between family, work and the private sphere, which in turn involves
continuous and flexible coordination of arrangements, communications and
face-to-face meetings with others. This leads directly to our next point.Second, miniaturized mobilities are part and parcel of a continuous coordination of
communications, social networks and the mobile self. We have seen already how
developments in digital technologies have made possible novel relations with others
at-a-distance and have desynchronized social life more generally. Research
indicates, however, that all social ties at-a-distance depend upon multiple processes
of coordination, negotiation and renegotiation with others. ‘Renegotiation’ is
especially significant in the coordination of mobile networks, as people ‘on the move’
use new technologies to reset and reorganize times and places for meetings, events
and happenings as they go about preparing to meet with others at previously agreed
times. The work of Ling, for example, underscores the often impromptu nature of
most mobile calls and texting.^12 Again, this can be gleaned from Sandra’s mobile life- from the brief calls she makes to her office to rearrange business meetings to the
texts she makes to her family upon returning to Leeds on Friday evenings, whether to
advise of last minute train delays or arrange for the collection of take out food on the
way home. Such ‘revisions to clock-time’ enacted through mobile calls, emailing and
texting suggest a deeper shift in how people experience time itself in conditions of
advanced mobilities. For what the continuous coordination of communications, social
networks and the mobile self spells is a transformation from punctual time to
negotiated time.^13
Third, in a world saturated with miniaturized mobilities, strategic travel planning
and communications scheduling become of key importance. With the advent of
miniaturized mobilities, travel times of one kind or another increasingly revolve
around the pursuit of work, business or leisure activities while travelling. That is to
say, the complex connections that exist today between transport systems and new
communications technologies mean that travel time is less likely to be approached
by individuals as unproductive, ‘wasted’ time, and more likely to be used productively(^12) Rich Ling, The mobile connection
(Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2004).
(^13) See Jonas Larsen, Kay Axhausen
and John Urry, ‘Geographies of social
net - works: meetings, travel and
communications’, Mobilities, 2006, 1:
pp. 261–83. Also see http://www.nytimes.com/
2008/04/13/magazine/13anthropology-t.html
for further elab ora tion on ‘just-in-time’
moments.