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Abstract
This article examines how we use mobile telephony to maintain our physically and socially closest social circle. The analysis is based on traffic data gathered from Norway using approximately 24 million calls and texts made by private individuals. Previous research has shown that our temporal and spatial movement is highly predictable and that the majority of calls and text messages are sent to only four to six different persons. This article extends this research by examining both tie strength and the distance between the interlocutors in urban and rural settings. The findings show that even as information and communication technologies (ICTs) potentially put the world at our fingertips, the mobile phone is an instrument of a more limited geographical and social sphere. Approximately two-thirds of our calls/texts go to strong ties that are within a 25-km radius.
Notes
1The data for this analysis include the call data records for a sample of subscribers to the Telenor system as of the second quarter of 2011. In this analysis, tie strength is defined as the person to whom we called the most during that 3-month period. According to the latest reports from Post-og Teletilsynet (the Norwegian Regulator), Telenor has a 49.7 percent share of the Norwegian Mobile market (PT 2013).
2In this article, we use the terms intimate and private sphere somewhat interchangeably to denote the closest ties measured in terms of the volume of mobile communication. The data and the privacy laws governing its use do not allow us to know the specific relationship between the interaction partners. Thus, we are left to assume that the intimate sphere and the private sphere have a large degree of overlap.
3These comments and the other citations come from a series of focus groups in Norway sponsored by Telenor. The results are unpublished.
4The pattern is not the same for telephonic interaction. Rather, the decline took place at about 100 miles. Mok and Wellman (Citation2007) concluded that the effect of distance was not as pronounced for telephonic interactions. While it is not specified, the use of telephone in this study was most likely landline based. There was, for example, no discussion of texting that Licoppe (Citation2004) has found so important in his discussions of connected presence. There is, however, the suggestion that location matters in the use of the mobile phone.
5It is important to note that it is not possible to trace the name or other identity of any of the callers nor is it possible to access the content of the calls or the texts.
6There was a tendency toward more use of the mobile phone in urban settings at the time of data collection. Analysis shows that 80 percent of the people in urban settings reported having a mobile call on a daily basis, where only 74 percent of the people living in the countryside (not in a village) reported the same. Further, 76 percent of the people living in towns with less than 20,000 reported calling. In relation to SMS, 70 percent of the urban dwellers versus 64 percent of the people in the country side reported sending a text message and 22 percent versus 9 percent reported using their mobiles for sending/receiving email (Vaage Citation2012).
7There are some subscription types that would favor “friends and family” with lower rates. However, the general decline in the cost of calling/texting minimizes the economic effect of these (PT 2012). Further, there is no “friction of time zones” in the case of domestic Norwegian calls. This may be an issue for countries such as the United States where there are multiple time zones.
8The cities are the five largest cities in Norway, including Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, and Bærum. The small towns are the rest of the urban settings. The cities have 25 percent of the population, the towns have 53 percent of the population, and the rural areas have the remaining 22 percent.
9In addition to the distance-based material, we were able to look into the gender-based calling distances. We found that in general the geographical circle of women is smaller than that of men. The median distance of calls was about 11 km for calls between women and 15.7 km for calls between men. This reflects the findings of Hjorthol (Citation2000), who noted that women generally operate in a space closer to home and men often work further away.