Emotional attachment and mobile phones

By Jane Vincent. Thumb Culture, 2005

207 citations recorded by the source corpus.

ConclusionThis article has provided, through reference to recent research, insights into the ways that people are using their mobile phones in their everyday lives and in particular it has explored and examined the concept of emotional attachment to the mobile phone. In offering some explanations for this seemingly unique behaviour it has highlighted the role of the social groups or buddy groups as the focus for the emotional attachment. The constant changes that occur in people’s everyday lives frequently involve the use of mobile phones—even if the people do not have one of their own. The rearranging of appointments, the casual setting up of new ones, the relationships between lovers conducted by text and the reassuring contact between families all have some effect on the individual’s autopoiesis. The multiple roles of the mobile phone in everyday life adds to the complexity of the debate but underlying the functional purposes is this constant and increasing emotional attachment. The assertion that this is in part due to the senses being pierced by all that the device engenders offers some explanation for this emotional attachment and is certainly an area for further study within the mobile communications social sciences and engineering communities.

Subfields: Communication, Sociology and Political Science, Human-Computer Interaction

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bdf885998ee6824660cd4a4f74d381626930d2ea

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Citations in the corpus

The Extended iSelf: The Impact of iPhone Separation on Cognition, Emotion, and Physiology (2015, background): “…feelings of panic and anxiety finding evidence of a relationship between cell phone attachment and greater feelings of panic during separation (Vincent, 2006 ) and anxiety during separation (Beranuy, Oberst, Carbonell, & Chamarro, 2009; Bianchi & Phillips, 2005; Cheever et al., 2014; Rosen et…”
Out of sight is not out of mind: The impact of restricting wireless mobile device use on anxiety levels among low, moderate and high users (2014, background): “These devices enable users to locate information instantaneously , access entertainment and make and rearrange plans (Leung, 2008; Vincent, 2006), as well as communicate immediately through social media platforms and text messaging.”
The Potential of Additive Manufacturing in the Smart Factory Industrial 4.0: A Review (2019, background): “Much research in sustainable product design focuses on features such as reducing the environmental effects of the resource, energy, and material usage while it regularly disregards understanding the quality of the design as a technique which maximizes product advantages [129,130].”
Is it love or loneliness? Exploring the impact of everyday digital technology use on the wellbeing of older adults (2017, background): “Material possessions have included portable devices, especially mobile phones (Vincent 2006).”