Managing The Unbalanced

Abstract

The role of mobile technologies in everyday identity management is highly gendered. Smartphones singularly merge identity-related practices and cultural consumption rituals, presenting an interesting arena for analysing the interactions between institutional and non-institutional discourses. Due to the hybrid nature of mobile technology, both gender and generational digital divides show distinct features in the process of domesticating mobile devices. On the basis of a series of focus groups and in-depth interviews compared to the discourse analysis of a sample of mobile-related TV ads, some relevant paradoxes emerge concerning the definition of intimacy, the balance between work and private life and intergenerational relations.

Keywords:

• mobile technologies
• advertising
• users' perception
• gender identity
• intimacy