Personal, Portable, Pedestrian - Mobile Phones in Japanese Life (Paperback, New Ed)

How mobile communications in Japan became a pervasively personal tool that connects families and friends, creating "always-on" social engagement. The Japanese term for mobile phone, keitai (roughly translated as "something you carry with you"), evokes not technical capability or freedom of movement but intimacy and portability, defining a personal accessory that allows constant social connection. Japan's enthusiastic engagement with mobile technology has become-along with anime, manga, and sushi-part of its trendsetting popular culture. Personal, Portable, Pedestrian, the first book-length English-language treatment of mobile communication use in Japan, covers the transformation of keitai from business tool to personal device for communication and play. The essays in this groundbreaking collection document the emergence, incorporation, and domestication of mobile communications in a wide range of social practices and institutions. The book first considers the social, cultural, and historical context of keitai development, including its beginnings in youth pager use in the early 1990s. It then discusses the virtually seamless integration of keitai use into everyday life, contrasting it to the more escapist character of Internet use on the PC. Other essays suggest that the use of mobile communication reinforces ties between close friends and family, producing "tele-cocooning" by tight-knit social groups. The book also discusses mobile phone manners and examines keitai use by copier technicians, multitasking housewives, and school children. Personal, Portable, Pedestrian describes a mobile universe in which networked relations are a pervasive and persistent fixture of everyday life.

General

Imprint:	MIT Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	The MIT Press
Release date:	September 2006
First published:	2006
Editors:	Mizuko It o (Professor in Residence at the University of California Humanities Research Institute) • Misa Matsuda • Daisuke Okabe
Dimensions:	229 x 178 x 19mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	372
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-262-59025-9
Categories:	Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Impact of science & technology on society Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Cultural studies > General
LSN:	0-262-59025-5
Barcode:	9780262590259

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