Concurrent with the explosive pervasion of information and communication technologies in recent years, mediated communication has gained a strong position in the daily interaction between family members. Based on the results of qualitative interviews with families in Denmark, this article shows how the mobile phone is used by parents and children to mediate a feeling of closeness while they are physically separated. This practice of `connected presence' is based on frequent calls and text messages between parents and children as well as between parents themselves. The article also analyses families' use of the mobile phone in the context of modern family life, emphasizing the importance of the temporal and spatial dispersion of family members in explaining the form and content of intra-familial mediated communication. Finally, the dual role of media technologies (including the mobile phone) in both integrating and dispersing families is discussed.
Aune, M. (1996) `The Computer in Everyday Life: Patterns of Domestication of a New Technology', in M. Lie and K.H. Sørensen (eds) Making Technology Our Own? Domesticating Technology into Everyday Life, pp. 91-120. Oslo : Scandinavian University Press.
2.
Baym, N.K., Y.B. Zhang and M.-C. Lin (2004) `Social Interactions across Media: Interpersonal Communication on the Internet, Telephone and Face-to-face', New Media & Society6(3): 299-318.
3.
Berger, P.L. and T. Luckmann (1966) The Social Construction of Reality. New York: Doubleday.
4.
Brown, B., N. Green and R. Harper (2002) Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age. London: Springer-Verlag .
5.
Chesley, N. (2005) `Blurring Boundaries? Linking Technology Use, Spillover, Individual Distress and Family Satisfaction', Journal of Marriage and Family67(5): 1237-48.
6.
Fortunati, L. (2005) `Is Body-to-body Communication Still the Prototype?' , The Information Society21(1): 53-61.
7.
Frissen, V.A.J. (1995) `Gender Is Calling: Some Reflections on Past, Present and Future Uses of the Telephone', in K. Grint and R. Gill (eds) The Gender-technology Relation: Contemporary Theory and Research, pp. 79-94. London: Taylor & Francis.
8.
Frissen, V.A.J. (2000) `ICTs in the Rush Hour of Life', The Information Society15(1): 65-75.
9.
Gergen, K.J. (2003) `Self and Community in the New Floating Worlds' , in K. Nyíri (ed.) Mobile Democracy: Essays on Society, Self and Politics, pp. 103-14. Vienna : Passagen Verlag.
10.
Green, N. (2002) `Who's Watching Whom? Monitoring and Accountability in Mobile Relations', in B. Brown, N. Green and R. Harper (eds) Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age, pp. 32-45. London: Springer-Verlag.
11.
Holter, H., H.V. Henriksen, A. Gjertsen and H. Hjort (1975) Familien i Klassesamfunnet [Family in Class Society] . Oslo: Pax.
12.
Humphreys, L. (2005) `Cellphones in Public: Social Interactions in a Wireless Era', New Media & Society7(6): 810-33.
13.
Katz, J.E. and M. Aakhus (2002) Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
14.
Kvale, S. (1996) Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
15.
Licoppe, C. (2004) `"Connected" Presence: The Emergence of a New Repertoire for Managing Social Relationships in a Changing Communication Technoscape' , Environment and Planning D22(1): 135-56.
16.
Ling, R. (2004) The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone's Impact on Society. San Francisco, CA: Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
17.
Ling, R. and B. Yttri (2002) `Hyper-coordination via Mobile Phones in Norway' , in J.E. Katz and M. Aakhus (eds) Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, pp. 139-69. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
18.
Livingstone, S. (2002) Young People and New Media. London: Sage.
19.
Mante-Meijer, E. and L. Haddon (2001) ICT Uses in Everyday Life: Checking it Out with the People - ICT Markets and Users in Europe, Project P 903. Heidelberg: European Institute for Research and Strategic Studies in Telecommunications.
20.
Navarro, V. and L.F. Rakow (1993) `Remote Mothering and the Parallel Shift: Women Meet the Cellular Telephone', Critical Studies in Mass Communication10(2): 144-57.
21.
Rakow, L.F. (1988) `Women and the Telephone: The Gendering of a Communications Technology', in C. Kramarae (ed.) Technology and Women's Voices, pp. 207-28. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
22.
Røpke, I. (1999) `The Dynamics of Willingness to Consume', Ecological Economics28(3): 399-420.
23.
Røpke, I. (2001) `New Technology in Everyday Life: Social Processes and Environmental Impact', Ecological Economics38(3): 403-22.
24.
Røpke, I. (2003) `Consumption Dynamics and Technological Change: Exemplified by the Mobile Phone and Related Technologies', Ecological Economics45(2): 171-88.
25.
Silverstone, R., E. Hirsch and D. Morley (1992) `Information and Communication Technologies and the Moral Economy of the Household', in R. Silverstone and E. Hirsch (eds) Consuming Technologies: Media and Information in Domestic Spaces, pp. 15-31. London: Routledge.
26.
Statistics Denmark (2005) Familie og Arbejdsliv [Family and Work]. Copenhagen: Statistics Denmark.
27.
Statistics Denmark (2007) Nøgletal om informationssamfundet Danmark - 2007 [Key Figures on the Danish Information Society 2007]. Copenhagen: Statistics Denmark/Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
Vestby, G.M. (1996) `Technologies of Autonomy? Parenthood in Contemporary "Modern Times"', in M. Lie and K.H. Sørensen (eds) Making Technology Our Own? Domesticating Technology into Everyday Life, pp. 65-90. Oslo : Scandinavian University Press.
30.
Wei, R. and V.-H. Lo (2006) `Staying Connected While on the Move: Cell Phone Use and Social Connectedness', New Media & Society8(1): 53-72.
