Mobiles and gifts - a theory perspective

I am fortunate enough to work with many talented PhD students, some of whom are able to look at the world of mobile with fresh eyes. In this case, Darryl Cressman is an oddity in this day and age: a student without a mobile phone. Perhaps that is why he is able to see things differently. Just returned from a conference in Europe, and impressed with some of the new mobile research he saw there, he prepared this short essay on the connection between mobile phones and the "gift" culture. Living, as we do, in a region with a long potlach tradition, perhaps this will sound familiar to some of you. Regardless, I hope you find it interesting.

Theorizing Cellular Use

Darryl Cressman

School of Communication, Simon Fraser University

This essay by Darryl Cressman reports on research undertaken by Michiel de Lange, a PhD Student affiliated with the ‘Playful Identities: From Narrative to Ludic Self-Construction’ project at Utrecht University and Erasmus University, Rotterdam NL.  See http://www.playful-identities.nl/.

Theorizing about digital media technologies usually takes one of two perspectives.  The first perspective is drawn from observation - watching someone playing video games and commenting on the player’s attentiveness or the action on the screen.  The second perspective derives from descriptions of the experience of using these technologies.  For example, ask anyone who plays video games what the experience is like and compare this with the observations of someone who knows little about the game and the distinction between the two approaches appears obvious.  

In our own day-to-day life, the contrast between participant and observer can be identified in one’s attitudes towards cellular phones.  We are often dismayed when someone is so wrapped up in conversation that they are not paying attention to their surroundings.  We get upset when during a conversation with someone we hear his or her phone ring followed by the phrase “Oh, I have to take this, sorry.”  Similarly, we are astounded at the conversations we overhear in public spaces, unable to comprehend how it is that some people can discuss certain aspects of their lives while being surrounded by strangers who can hear all of the details.  But, when our own cell phones ring, it is often the case that we turn from passionate advocates for cell phone etiquette to willing participants in behaviour we had just condemned.  Perhaps we are all self-absorbed, believing that the phone calls and text messages that we receive are always more important than the ones that strangers receive, thus absolving us from the normative judgments we use to critique other’s behaviour.  Or, perhaps we are jealous - jealous that others are receiving something that we too want.

If we think about this last suggestion, Michiel de Lange’s work on understanding cellular communications from the perspective of the ‘gift’ can point us in a direction whereby we can better understand the experiential dimensions of using cell phones.  By employing Mauss’s (1924 [2004]) idea of the gift and its role in processes of social interaction, seemingly trivial, obtrusive, or rude communicative activities take on new meaning by shifting attention away from the functional elements of communication towards a symbolic interpretation.  If we think of the phone calls and instant messages we receive as ‘gifts’ from our friends and family, perhaps we can better understand why it is that our own cell phone conversations are seemingly more important than other people’s.

de Lainge’s contextualizes the practices of mobile phone users and he emphasizes the ways in which these practices fit into Mauss’s description of ‘gifting’ as a total phenomenon that can be identified in every domain of human life.  de Lange highlights a number of different ways that we can conceptualize cell phone behaviour as a process of giving and receiving gifts: exchanging photos or ring tones, giving out one’s number, or sharing the phone itself.  Of course, the most prevalent way that gifting occurs is the message or call that you receive.  de Lange highlights the way that lovers will send short messages back and forth, invoking an almost ceremonial form of gifting in which the content of the message is secondary to the message itself.  

To return to the myriad of ways we interpret our own and other’s cell phone behaviour, it may do well to think of these messages and conversations as gifts.  When we see others receiving gifts, gifts that we too could also receive, it is only natural to feel a little pang of jealousy, jealousy that usually manifests itself in snide comments directed towards the recipient of the gift (and their subsequent behaviour).  Similarly, when we are the one’s who are receiving the gift, our thoughts turn only to the gift itself, we are happy that we have been chosen to receive this gift and as such, we become oblivious to what other people think.

My favorite example of conceptualizing cell phone use through a theory of gifting is one that reflects my own cell phone habits.  Not having a cell phone means that I have no cell phone habits; thus, I neither send nor receive gifts if we are to maintain de Lainge’s theory.  But, if we dig deeper, we can see that I am in fact giving everyone a gift – the gift of not using a cell phone at times and places that would be inappropriate,

“Another kind of gifting, we suggest, is overtly not using the phone in situations like meetings of semi-public places.  This is a gift to the co-present other(s).  It may be an ‘offering of respect’, and ‘offering of publicness’, and ‘offering of shared solicitude’ or simply an ‘offering of silence’.  This subtle and often fragile type of gifting is easily subject to a tragedy of the commons when others do not recognize it as a gift.”

The idea that a call or short message can be interpreted as a gift is an interesting approach to cell phone use.  Although I would hesitate to call unwanted calls or messages gifts, this particular approach seems to be best suited to understanding our own behaviour towards cell phone use. As de Lange asks, “Why is mobile phone interaction often perceived as banal and trivial by bystanders, yet so compelling to those calling?” the answer may lie if we reinterpret the conversations or messages as symbolic interactions and not as communicative interactions.

References

de Lange, Michiel. “Give Yourself Away: Mobile Communication as Gift Culture.”  Paper presented at Erasmus University, Rotterdam NL.  September 26, 2006.   

Mauss, Marcel (2004 [1924]). “The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies.”  New York: Routledge.