The hermeneutic circle of cellphone use: four universal moments in a Malaysian narrative of continuing contact

Abstract

Telephone users are teleological or future-oriented — temporarily apart, anticipatory, they articulate and appropriate meaning. Often, gender and generational cultures are held to differ in their accessing of phone formats and functions (call, data download, email, internet, multimedia and short message services). Drawing upon hermeneutic theory of understanding, the article argues that despite this diversity, there are four underlying universal cognitive moments characterizing the process of receiving and responding to handphone content: (1) perceiving and simultaneously (2) projecting potential narrative; (3) producing a coherent call, message or text; and (4) positioning the significance of cellphone meaning for a life-world. Referring to this fourfold ludology of immersion and inferring content allows us to consider in conceptual detail Malaysian corporate and consumer narratives of employing handphone technology. Philosophically grounded theory shows how culturally concrete experiences of cellphone use during work and leisure instantiate abstract patterns of understanding in reception and response.

Keywords

cellphone hermeneutics immersive ludic Malaysia media use play phenomenology reception

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alasuutari, P. (1999) `Introduction: Three Phases of Reception Studies ' in P. Alasuutari (ed.) Rethinking the Media Audience, pp. 1—21. London: Sage.

Boellstorff, T. (2006) `A Ludicrous Discipline? Ethnography and Games Studies', Games and Culture 1(1): 29—35.

Caillois, R. (1961) Man, Play and Games. New York : Free Press.

Campbell, S.W. (2007) `A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Perceptions and Uses of Mobile Telephony', New Media & Society 9(2): 343—63.

Caronia, L. (2005) `Mobile Culture: An Ethnography of Cellular Phone Uses in Teenagers' Everyday Life', Convergence 11(3): 96—103.

Caronia, L. and A.H. Caron (2004) `Constructing a Specific Culture:Young People's Use of the Mobile Phone as a Social Performance', Convergence 10(2): 28—61.

Cohen, A.A. and D. Lemish (2003) `Real Time and Recall Measures of Mobile Phone Use: Some Methodological Concerns and Empirical Applications', New Media & Society 5(2): 167—83.

Cooper, G. (2002) `The Mutable Mobile: Social Theory in the Wireless World' in B. Brown , N. Green and R. Harper (eds) Wireless World Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age, pp. 19—31. London: Springer .

De Run, E.C. and F.C.Y. Thang (2005) `Telecommunications Customer Service Personnel's Perceptions of Customers: A Quantitative Approach', paper presented at the Asia Pacific Marketing Conference: Integrating Theory with Practice, University Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia, 5—7 November.

10.

Farnsworth, J. and T. Austrin (2005) `Assembling Portable Talk and Mobile Worlds: Sound Technologies and Mobile Social Networks', Convergence 11(2): 14—22.

11.

Gadamer, H.G. (1975) Truth and Method. London: Sheed and Ward.

12.

Gant, D. and S. Kiesler (2002) `Blurring the Boundaries: Cellphones, Mobility, and the Line between Work and Personal Life', in B. Brown , N. Green and R. Harper (eds) Wireless World Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age, pp. 121—31. London : Springer.

13.

Garcia-Montes, J.M. , D. Caballero-Munoz and M. Perez-Alvarez (2006) `Changes in the Self Resulting from the Use of Mobile Phones', Media, Culture and Society 28(1): 67—82.

14.

Gee, J.P. (2006) `Why Games Studies Now? Video Games: a New Art Form', Games and Culture 1(1): 58—61.

15.

Gergen, K.J. (2002) `The Challenge of Absent Presence', in J.E. Katz and M. Aakhus (eds) Perpetual Contact Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, pp. 227—41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

16.

Goggin, G. (2006a) Cellphone Culture Mobile Technology in Everyday Life. London: Routledge.

17.

Goggin, G. (2006b) `Mobile Media and Ethnography', paper presented at the International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference, American University in Cairo, Egypt, 23—29 July.

18.

Gordon, J. (2002) `The Mobile Phone. An Artefact of Popular Culture and a Tool of the Public Sphere', Convergence 8(3): 15—26.

19.

Graham, S. (2004) `Beyond the “Dazzling Light”: From Dreams of Transcendence to the “Remediation” of Urban Life', New Media & Society 6(1): 16—25.

20.

Habuchi, I. (2005) `Accelerating Reflexivity', in M. Ito , D. Okabe and M. Matsuda (eds) Personal, Portable, Pedestrian. Mobile Phones in Japanese Life, pp. 165—82. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

21.

Hans, J.S. (1981) The Play of the World. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts. Hemment, D. (2005) `The Mobile Effect', Convergence 11(2): 32—40.

22.

Huizinga, J. (1970[1949]) Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. London: Temple.

23.

Humphreys, L. (2005) `Cellphones in Public: Social Interactions in a Wireless Era', New Media & Society 7(6): 810—33.

24.

Iser, W. (1978) The Act of Reading. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Ito, M. ( 2005) `Introduction', in M. Ito , D. Okabe and M. Matsuda (eds) Personal, Portable, Pedestrian. Mobile Phones in Japanese Life, pp. 1—16. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

25.

Ito, M. (forthcoming) `Introduction', in K.Varnelis (ed.) Networked Publics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

26.

Katz, J.E. and M.A. Aakhus (2002) `Conclusion: Making Meaning of Mobiles — a Theory of Apparatgeist', in J.E. Katz and M. Aakhus (eds) Perpetual Contact Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, pp. 301—18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

27.

Katz, J.E. and S. Sugiyama (2006) `Mobile Phones as Fashion Statements: Evidence from Student Surveys in the US and Japan', New Media & Society 8(2): 321—337. Kerr, A. , J. Kucklich and P. Brereton (2006) `New Media — New Pleasures?', International Journal of Cultural Studies 9(1): 63—82.

28.

Krzywinska, T. (2006) `The Pleasures and Dangers of the Game Up Close and Personal', Games and Culture 1(1): 119—22.

29.

Leung, L. and R. Wei (1999) `Who Are the Mobile Phone Have-Nots?', New Media & Society 1(2): 209—226.

30.

Lie, R. ( 2003) Spaces of Intercultural Communication. An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Communication, Culture, and Globalizing/Localizing Identities . Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Ling, R. (2004) The Mobile Connection:The Cellphone's Impact on Society. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.

31.

Murtagh, G.M. (2002) `Seeing the “Rules”: Preliminary Observations of Action, Interaction and Mobile Phone Use', in B. Brown , N. Green and R. Harper (eds) Wireless World Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age, pp. 81—91. London: Springer.

32.

Myers, D. (2006) `Signs, Symbols, Games, and Play', Games and Culture 1(1): 47—51. Nafus, D. and K. Tracey (2002) `Mobile Phone Consumption and Concepts of Personhood ' in J.E. Katz and M. Aakhus (eds) Perpetual Contact Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, pp. 206—21. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Okabe, D. , K. Anderson , M. Ito and S. Mainwaring (2005) `Location-based Moblogging as Method: New Views into the Use and Practice of Persona, Social, and Mobile Technologies', paper presented at the Seeing, Understanding, Learning in the Mobile Age International Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 28—30 April.

33.

Oksman,V. and J.Turtiainen (2004) `Mobile Communication as a Social Stage', New Media & Society 6(3): 319—39.

34.

Raessens, J. (2006) `Playful Identities, or the Ludification of Culture', Games and Culture 1(1): 52—7.

35.

Silverstone, R. (1999) Why Study the Media? London : Sage.

36.

Simon, B. (2006) `Beyond Cyberspatial Flaneurie on the Analytic Potential of Living with Digital Games', Games and Culture 1(1): 62—7.

37.

Villi, M. (2006) `Photo Messages and the Ritual View of Communication ', paper presented at the National Conference on Media Research, Helsinki, 3 February.

38.

Wei, R. ( 2006) `Lifestyles and New Media: Adoption and Use of Wireless Communication Technologies in China', New Media & Society 8(6): 991—1008.

39.

Wei, R. and V-H. Lo (2006) `Staying Connected While on the Move: Cellphone Use and Social Connectedness', New Media & Society 8(1): 53—72.

40.

Williams, D. (2006) `Why Games Studies Now? Gamers Don't Bowl Alone', Games and Culture 1(1): 13—16.

41.

Wilson, T. (2004) The Playful Audience: From Talk Show Viewers to Internet Users. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

42.

Wilson, T. (2007) Global Media: Malaysian Use. Kuala Lumpur: August Publishing/University Bookshops .

43.

Wolf, M.J.P. (2006) `Games Studies and Beyond', Games and Culture 1(1): 116—18.

44.

Yee, N. ( 2006) `The Labor of Fun: How Video Games Blur the Boundaries of Work and Play', Games and Culture 1(1): 68—71.

45.

Yoon, K. (2006) `The Making of Neo-Confucian Cyberkids: Representations of Young Mobile Phone Users in South Korea', New Media & Society 8(5): 753—71.