Childhood, Mobile Technologies and Everyday Experiences: Changing Technologies=Changing Childhoods? PDF
Preview Childhood, Mobile Technologies and Everyday Experiences: Changing Technologies=Changing Childhoods?
StudiesinChildhoodandYouth Series Editors: Allison James, University of Sheffield, UK, and Adrian James, UniversityofSheffield,UK Titlesinclude: KateBacon TWINSINSOCIETY Parents,Bodies,SpaceandTalk EmmaBond CHILDHOOD,MOBILETECHNOLOGIESANDEVERYDAYEXPERIENCES ChangingTechnologies=ChangingChildhoods? DavidBuckingham,SaraBraggandMaryJaneKehily YOUTHCULTURESINTHEAGEOFGLOBALMEDIA DavidBuckinghamandVebjørgTingstad(editors) CHILDHOODANDCONSUMERCULTURE TomCockburn RETHINKINGCHILDREN’SCITIZENSHIP SamFrankel CHILDREN,MORALITYANDSOCIETY AllisonJames SOCIALISINGCHILDREN AllisonJames,AnneTrineKjørholtandVebjørgTingstad(editors) CHILDREN,FOODANDIDENTITYINEVERYDAYLIFE NicholasLee CHILDHOODANDBIOPOLITICS ClimateChange,LifeProcessesandHumanFutures ManfredLiebel,KarlHanson,IvenSaadiandWouterVandenhole(editors) CHILDREN’SRIGHTSFROMBELOW Cross-CulturalPerspectives OrnaNaftali CHILDREN,RIGHTSANDMODERNITYINCHINA RaisingSelf-GoverningCitizens HelenStapleton SURVIVINGTEENAGEMOTHERHOOD MythsandRealities AfuaTwum-DansoImohandRobertAme CHILDHOODSATTHEINTERSECTIONOFTHELOCALANDTHEGLOBAL HanneWarming PARTICIPATION,CITIZENSHIPANDTRUSTINCHILDREN’SLIVES KarenWells,EricaBurman,HeatherMontgomeryandAlisonWatson(editors) CHILDHOOD,YOUTHANDVIOLENCEINGLOBALCONTEXTS ResearchandPracticeinDialogue RebekahWillett,ChrisRichards,JackieMarsh,AndrewBurn andJuliaC.Bishop(editors) CHILDREN,MEDIAANDPLAYGROUNDCULTURES EthnographicStudiesofSchoolPlaytimes StudiesinChildhoodandYouth SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–0–230–21686–0hardback (outsideNorthAmericaonly) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to usattheaddressbelowwithyournameandaddress,thetitleoftheseriesand theISBNquotedabove. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS,England Childhood, Mobile Technologies and Everyday Experiences = Changing Technologies Changing Childhoods? Emma Bond UniversityCampusSuffolk,Ipswich,UK ©EmmaBond2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-29252-0 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedherrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2014by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-45094-7 ISBN 978-1-137-29253-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137292537 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. This book is dedicated to my children – Amelia, Harriet, Florence, Zach and Jemima – and to their childhoods, now past; to the changing contours of our lives, for their patience and understanding when times were challenging and for their love and belief in me as their mother; and to my newly arrived granddaughter – Molly – whose childhood is already beginning to fascinate and delight us all Contents Acknowledgements viii 1 Introduction 1 2 UnderstandingChildhood 9 3 UnderstandingTechnology 41 4 ResearchingChildhood,MobileInternetTechnologiesand EverydayExperiences 70 5 Relationships 100 6 Risk 127 7 RhetoricandRealities 158 8 SomeConcludingThoughts 187 References 207 Index 237 vii Acknowledgements First, my sincere gratitudemust go to my parents – Michael and Molly Bond – who have been tremendously supportive to me throughout my career and have always been on hand to help out with the roller coasteroffamily–well,myfamily–life!IwouldliketothankProfessor Sonia Livingstone, whose work has inspired me since I undertook my PhD at the University of Essex, and whose extensive research with the EU Kids Online network has informed many of the discussions within thisbook.IwouldalsoliketothankProfessorEamonnCarrabine,who first suggested and encouraged me to write this book, and to Andrew JamesandtheeditorialteamatPalgraveMacmillanfortheiradviceand patience. Most importantly, my grateful thanks must go to my friend andcolleagueStuartAgnew,atUniversityCampusSuffolk,whonotonly offeredguidanceonthecontent,butalsowhosepracticalhelpatwork enabledmetoactuallygetitwrittenandwithoutwhomthisbookwould neverhavereachedcompletion.Thankyou. Finally, my gratitude must be extended to the hours I spent in the Suffolkcountrysidewhilstwritingthisbook,totheloveIfoundinthe landscapesinwhichIsoughtsolaceandtothefollyandfieldsofFreston. viii 1 Introduction This book is essentially about childhood. In fact, it is about childhood andtherelationshipbetweenmobiletechnologiesandchildhood,high- lighting children’s everyday experiences in growing up with mobile internet technologies. It is an attempt to explore the changing nature of late-modern childhood and the relationship between childhood, as a social and cultural construction, and the plethora of mobile internet technologies which have become ubiquitous in everyday life, and cer- tainly in most children’s everyday lives. According to recent research byMascheroniandÓlafsson(2013),smartphonesaredevicesthatmost childrenarelikelytoown(53percent)oruseatleastonceadaytogo online. By mobile internet technologies, I include here, of course, not onlymobilephonesandsmartphonesbutalsopost-PCtablets,netbooks and e-readers. As the authors (2013, p. 5) point out, however, ‘there is much current discussion of mobile media, there is scope for different definitions at this point in time as well as changing definitions over timeif,liketheinternetitself,mobilemediaareamovingtargetasnew technologiesandapplicationsarecontinuouslydeveloped’.Myanalysis here examines what Rich Ling (2012) calls the ‘taken for grantedness’ of mobile technologies and how mobile communication devices have become embedded in society. Ling (2012, p. 6) uses the term ‘social mediation technologies’ in that they ‘are legitimated artifacts and sys- tems governed by group-based reciprocal expectations that enable, but also set conditions for, the maintenance of the social sphere’. I have, however,chosentousethephrase‘mobileinternettechnologies’inthis bookasitisaclearreminderofthemobility,connectivityandtechno- logicalaffordances(seeHutchby,2001a)thatthesepersonaliseddevices combine.Becausetheyarenowataken-for-grantedpartofeverydaylife, 1 2 Childhood,MobileTechnologies&EverydayExperiences it is easy to forget, even as adults whose childhood experiences were notplayedoutthroughinteractionswithmobileinternettechnologies, whatlifewaslikebeforewehadthesesmartpocket-sizedbundlesofdig- italcapabilitiesinourpocketsandhandbags.Inoureverydaylives,they have indeed become taken for granted (Ling, 2012), and also implied by ‘taken for granted’ is that we are almost constantly contactable by and connected to our family, friends, colleagues and the wider society through the internet. What implications does this have on our fam- ily lives, friendships, relationships and working lives? We can contact others in a variety of ways – call and talk to them, send a text mes- sage or a picture message, we can talk face to face and see each other, we can send a video or we can email, update our status and get in touch on Facebook or tweet – to name but a few. We can communi- cate from wherever we are – on a bus or train, the street or beach, or even from the middle of a field – provided we are connected in somewaytoanetwork.Arguably,thisprovidesuswithasenseofsecu- rity as a result of our constant connectivity. In turn, we can also be reached by our families, friends and partners, but if we cannot get in touch with people or if they do not respond almost immediately, in some instances, a sense of doubt and insecurity often sets in: ‘Why haven’t they texted me back?’ or ‘I haven’t heard from them in days – I hope that they are OK’. So, whilst we are reassured and gain secu- rity through mobile internet technologies, they simultaneously make us feel insecure and incite anxiety (Bond, 2010). Furthermore, we can also play games, find out the latest news, check football scores and weatherforecasts;wecanbuythingswhilstonatrainorwalkingdown the street; we can watch videos, catch up on missed television pro- grammes and download podcasts whilst waiting for a bus or sitting in the dentist’s waiting room. According to Mascheroni and Ólafsson (2013,p.11), the place where children are more likely to use their smartphones at least once a day is actually their own bedroom (39%) or another room at home (37%). This suggests that children value privacy and conveniencemorethanmobility–perhapsbecausethesmartphone isalways‘athand’anddoesn’tneedtobeturnedon. Throughthesemobileinternetdevices,wehavebecomebothconstant consumersandproducersofmediaanddigitalartefacts,aswecannow take,uploadandsharevideosandimagesfromvirtuallyanywhere,allat thetouchofascreenandwithinseconds.Themostprivatespacesand
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