PLAYING WITH FIRE: On the domestication of the mobile phone among Palestinian teenage girls in Israel

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of mobile phone practices among Palestinian Israeli teenage girls, framed within a discussion about the domestication of communication technologies, women and the telephone, and Palestinian teenage girls in Israel. The paper constructs a detailed account of mobile phone use among Palestinian Israeli girls who, at the time of the fieldwork (2003–2006), used mobile phones given to them by their illicit boyfriends, unbeknownst to their parents. The analysis explores the ways in which the phone use dialectically reaffirmed and challenged intergenerational and cross-gender relationships; and reflects on the notion of ‘domestication’ as a framework for analysing mobile communication media.

Keywords:

• Mobile phone
• telephone
• technology
• domestication
• gender
• women
• teenage girls
• courtship
• Palestinian
• Israel

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Professor Dafna Lemish for her insightful comments on an earlier version of this paper. They dedicate the paper to the teenage girls who have generously shared their experiences with them.