On Emotion and Memories: the Consumption of Mobile Phones as ‘Affective Technology’

Abstract

Abstract:In this article, which is theoretically affiliated to studies of consumption as material culture as developed especially by Miller (1987;, the goal is to analyze the consumption of mobile phones in its interaction with social dynamics related to gender and generation categories. How do the consumption practices related to mobile phones influence the emotions experienced in the relationships between parents and children and between men and women? Drawing from an ethnographic approach, I am investigating which emotional investments the social agents express through the consumption of mobile phones, and I am also considering how emotions change when mediated by the consumption of this mobile technology. Through the analysis, I expect both to highlight the richness and complexity of the material and symbolic dimensions involved in the daily processes of consumption, as well as enlighten the study of consumption practices from a segment that is still poorly studied: the popular groups.

HIV, Phone Friends and Affective Technology in Papua New Guinea

“…I then explain why the sociality of women living with HIV is often severely circumscribed because of both family rejection and their own strategies for self care. I conclude with a discussion of how these women use mobile phones to achieve a more expansive and emotionally fulfilling sociality, showing that, in contrast to the domain of public health, which imagines the mobile phone as an instrumental technology, mobile phones are better understood as an 'affective technology' (Lasen 2004;Silva 2012) -a communication technology that not only mediates the expression and experience of emotion, but also opens up new forms of emotional intimacy.…”

“I miss my mobile phone!”: Self-expansion via mobile phone and responses to phone loss

“…Several scholars have argued that the mobile phone is a type of "affective technology" that is deeply connected to the emotional lives of users (Fortunati and Vincent, 2009;Silva, 2012). People likely vary in the perceived needs that their mobile phone fulfills and in the aspects of mobile phone use that they value most (cf.…”

“…by connecting people and assisting navigation through physical environments; e.g. Campbell and Kwak, 2011;Katz, 2008;Rettie, 2008;Silva, 2012).…”

“…countries around the world-for example, in the United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and South Korea-has documented emotional aspects of mobile phone use. Evidence shows that people become emotionally attached to personal media devices (Fortunati and Vincent, 2009;Lee and Sundar, 2015;Silva, 2012;Vincent, 2006). Mobile phones are always in close proximity to users and connect them to others with whom they have emotional bonds.…”

‘You’re facing that machine but there’s a human being behind it’: students’ affective experiences on an online doctoral programme

“…For example, Silva (2012) explored the use of the mobile phone as an 'affective technology' among low income neighbourhoods in Brazil. Silva (2012) illuminated the emotional relationships users had with their mobile phones, which had the capacity to make them feel 'great happiness', 'socially included' and 'a refined person'. This kind of investigation of the relation between 'bodies, technology and matter' (Clough 2007: 2) affective networks produce feelings of community, or what we might call 'community without community'.…”