Social culture of mobile phones : A case study of China and Japan

Human beings are social animals. It is instinctive to communicate with others. The mobile phone is essentially an interpersonal interaction tool used by people to transmit information, convey feelings and coordinate activities. Since its birth, the obile phone has formed different dominant social functions, and each function embodies unique social meaning. In the early stage of the cellular phone, during which voice calls were the predominant function, there were few subscribers, and the phones were widely perceived as luxury items. In addition to one-to-one voice calls, with the development of mobile technology, the mobile phone has provided other functions, such as short message service and email, allowing users to make a choice between synchronous and asynchronous communication. After the introduction of smart phones, social applications and instant messages─representing a higher return to face-to-face communication─have characterized a variety of ways to express oneself. On one hand, under the construction of mobile phones, human senses get extension with pluralistic self existing in multiple social space and time

mobile phone

social relations

mediated sociality

ubiquitous sociality