PsychNology Journal, Volume 5, Number 1, 83 - 99

Mobile Fantasies on Film: Gathering Metaphoric Evidence of Mobile Symbiosis and the Mobile Imaginary 

Kathleen M. Cumiskey 
College of Staten Island - City University of New York, USA 

Abstract
Mobile communication studies are often limited in their ability to capture the entire domain of a mobile phone call. These limitations often require that researchers separately study what is going on between the caller, the recipient of the call and those with whom they are face-to-face. Two  scenes  from  two  different  American  films  were  used  as  a means to document the ways in which users imagine mobile phone use.  The scenes were coded for evidence  of  contextual  seams,  interpersonal  seams,  mobile  symbiosis  and  the  mobile imaginary.  Mobile communication provides new opportunities for sharing experiences and tasks  that  could  not  exist  without the mobile aspects of the phone.  Understanding how mobile phones serve as a medium onto which we project our deeper psychological needs provides a glimpse into the fantasies and fears around mobile phone use.

Keywords: mobile phones, mobile communication, social consequences of mobile
communication, co-presence.

Cite as: 
Cumiskey K. M. (2007). Mobile Fantasies on Film: Gathering Metaphoric Evidence of Mobile Symbiosis and the Mobile Imaginary. PsychNology Journal, 5(1), 83 - 99. Retrieved [month] [day], [year], from www.psychnology.org.

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