Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Mobile communication has an increasing impact on people's lives and society. Ubiquitous media influence the way users relate to their surroundings, and data services like text and pictures lead to a culture shaped by thumbs. Representing several years of research into the social and cultural effects of mobile phone use, this volume assembles the fascinating approaches and new insights of leading scientists and practitioners. The book contains the results of a first international survey on the social consequences of mobile phones. It provides a comprehensive inventory of today's issues and an outlook in mobile media, society and their future study.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. 9)
• Introduction (p. 11)
• Section 1 Cultural Identities
• Is the cell phone undermining the social order? Understanding mobile technology from a sociological perspective (p. 23)
• The social and economic implications of mobile telephony in Rwanda: An ownership/access typology (p. 37)
• Postal presence: A case study of mobile customisation and gender in Melbourne (p. 53)
• The age of the thumb: A cultural reading of mobile technologies from Asia (p. 67)
• Communication problems (p. 89)
• From teenage life to Victorian morals and back: Technological change and teenage life (p. 101)
• Section 2 Mobile Personalities
• Emotional attachment and mobile phones (p. 117)
• The mobile phone and the dynamic between private and public communication: Results of an international exploratory study (p. 123)
• The role of interspace in sustaining identity (p. 137)
• The mobile phone as technological artefact (p. 149)
• The mobile telephone as a return to unalienated communication (p. 161)
• Mobile communication and the transformation of daily life: The next phase of research on mobiles (p. 171)
• Section 3 Industry Perspectives
• Facing the future, changing customer needs (p. 185)
• Loading mobile phones in a multi-option society (p. 189)
• Mobile mania, mobile manners (p. 199)
• Your life in snapshots: Mobile weblogs (moblogs) (p. 211)
• Designing the future: Fables from the mobile telecoms industry (p. 225)
• The future of mobile in the 3G era (p. 235)
• Mythology and mobile data (p. 251)
• Conclusion
• People, mobiles and society. Concluding insights from an international expert survey (p. 261)
• Notes on Contributors (p. 289)