Asymmetries in Asian Families’ Domestication of Mobile Communication
Abstract
As powerful, portable media devices such as smartphones and tablets diffuse across the region at an unparalleled rate, families in Asia are coming to terms with the many asymmetries that these gadgets herald. Because mobile communication devices are deeply personal, but are also vested with a remarkable combination of instrumentality and emotionality, their entry into a household will inevitably provoke alternating reactions of anticipation and dread, efficacy and inadequacy, liberation and enslavement, and joy and drudgery. Within every home, these emotional dualities will pervade each family member’s experience of domesticating mobile devices, making asymmetries relating to power, expectations, practice, access, competencies, and values increasingly palpable. Families must therefore negotiate such asymmetries as they manage the growing presence of mobile communication devices and their expanding repertoire of locative and social media functions.
... Whereas objectification and integration occur within the internal structure of the household, appropriation and conversion broaden the boundaries of the household into the outside world (Lim, 2016;Tan & Lim, 2004). All these processes, however, take place against the backdrop of the value system of the household members according to which the symbolic meanings of goods are constructed (Lim, 2008;Watulak & Whitfield, 2016). ...
... For the women who demonstrated broad domestication, this phase involved becoming aware of IPAs through various media and for some it even included experiencing them at other persons' homes. Supporting previous notions about the role of the outside world in the process of appropriation (Lim, 2016;De Schutter et al., 2015), their awareness and encouraging experience may explain these participants' enthusiasm and mostly positive expectations. ...
... This was particularly true for the women in the first group, who used the IPA to entertain visitors, adults and children alike. For this group, the IPA not only served as a topic of conversation with people outside the household (Lim, 2016;Tan & Lim, 2004), it also created a symbolic change in the household itself. Personifying the IPA and forming a relationship with it, users in this group regarded the IPA as an entity that became part of the household. ...
Technology domestication in old age may promote autonomy and support aging in place, but most previous research did not follow the process of domestication over time and in real life conditions. To gain deeper understanding of technology domestication in later life, we simultaneously explored uses, outcomes and constraints in real life conditions in a longitudinal study. Nineteen community-dwelling women aged 75–90 were provided with voice-controlled Intelligent Personal Assistants (Google Home) and their experiences with them were documented for three months via semi-structured interviews, observations, and weekly surveys. Analysis identified three different patterns of technology domestication: “Broad domestication” characterized by a high level of integration and ongoing experimentation, “focused domestication” in which the user mainly adopted one of the device’s functions, and “restrained domestication” wherein a short period of experimentation was followed by occasional use, if any. Demonstrating that the process of technology domestication is not homogeneous, the findings call for some theoretical updates and offer several practical implications.
... The second framework looks at how this process unfolds through the initial acquisition of the product (appropriation), the spatial reconfiguration of other household objects around it (objectification), the reconfiguration of time routines negotiated with the use of the new technology (incorporation), and finally its symbolic status visa-vis the rest of the society (conversion) (Silverstone 2006). The third framework looks at duals roles of technology as an object and symbolic object and a vehicle that circulates and mediates meaning, where the first articulation is in the object (technological artifact) itself and the second articulation is in the messages conveyed through it (Boczkowski and Lievrouw 2008;Hartmann 2006;Lim 2016;Silverstone 2006). How this manifests itself varies across contexts (Hartmann 2006;Silverstone 2006;Courtois, Verdegem, and De Marez 2012). ...
... Møller and Petersen (2017) use the case of the materiality of gay hookup apps as a technological environment which, through social scripts, have developed into different spaces of sexual intimacy on different apps. Scholars have noted that many analyses of technologies fail to thoroughly detail the concept of double articulation focusing mostly on the object and context, and less on the relationship between the mediums and content (Courtois, Verdegem, and De Marez 2012;Hartmann 2006;Lim 2016;Livingstone 2007). ...
This exploratory study investigates the encounters and everyday experiences with the Facebook algorithm of 18 informants in Yangon, Myanmar. It draws on domestication theory and research on algorithms to understand how users come to use and respond to Facebook. Findings showed that their particular perception of Facebook algorithm—Friends funnel information—informs their domestication process, wherein they add strangers as Friends to draw more information flows to their News Feeds.
... In this regard, following this proposition allows us to consider the many and intertwined forces that affect mobile communication. For instance, sociocultural and socio-technological forces work as either a catalyst or barrier for enabling a satisfying transnational relationship (Parreñas 2005b(Parreñas , 2014Madianou and Miller 2012;Lim 2016). By examining data drawn from in-depth interviews (Lindlof and Taylor 2002) and photo elicitation (Emmison and Smith 2000), I propose six categories to illuminate uneven communicative mobilities: access, socio-technical competency, quality of connectivity, rhythms, affective experience, and communicative space. ...
... Mobile communication often produces contradictory experiences among transnational families (Horst 2006;Madianou and Miller 2012). These tensions are often shaped by uneven sociocultural expectations (Madianou and Miller 2012;Lim 2016). During my fieldwork, I noticed that bittersweet feelings were experienced by the informants. ...
Ubiquitous digital communication technologies play a crucial role in shaping the nature of family life at a distance. Paradoxically, mobile device use has not only brought dispersed family members together, it also sometimes stirs communicative tensions in transnational households. These tensions are often produced by uneven access to a wide range of re-sources in mediated communication. Employing the mobilities lens, this paper examines the role of smartphones and networked communications platforms in binding ties and relationships among twenty-one overseas Filipino workers in Melbourne, Australia, and their left-behind family members in the Philippines. Based on data drawn from in-depth interviews and photo elicitation, the research study uncovers the performance, embodiment, and negotiation of transnational relationships through mobile device use. Significantly, it also demonstrates the impact of structural and infrastructural forces in enabling differential mediated mobilities. In illuminating asymmetrical mobile communication, I propose six categories: access, socio-technical competency, quality of connectivity, rhythms, affective experience, and communicative space. Ultimately, this paper offers a critical lens on investigating mobile practices in the conduct of transnational family life.
... Behind the seemingly harmonious micro-coordination, a salient asymmetry of mediated communication (Lim 2016) was observed between stay-put fathers and their migrant wives during the fieldwork period, which could be embodied in two primary aspects. Firstly, as many Fujianese venture to Global North countries (e.g. the USA and Europe) for better economic opportunities, there is often a time difference between stay-put fathers and their migrant wives. ...
Given the feminised labour migration in Southeast and South Asian countries, there is a growing body of literature discussing the phenomenon of left-behind fatherhood, with a particular focus on intra-family dynamics (gender reconfiguration) in transnational families. Yet little is known about how left-behind fatherhood is broached in other migratory contexts. To make empirical and theoretical contributions to the contextuality of stayers’ fatherhood, this article draws on an ethnographic study of male stayers in Fuqing, a major transnational migrant-labour-sending area in China. Applying the concept of positionality and situated transnationalism, this article addresses these fathers’ challenges and practices when coping with their parental role. This study argues that the lack of job opportunities (in rural China), culture of migration (in Fuqing), overseas immigration policies (on clandestine migration), and neoliberal Chinese fatherhood discourses, contribute to their unique parenting dilemmas and strategies when compared to their Southeast and South Asian counterparts. This paper advocates for a conceptual shift from ‘left-behind’ to ‘stay-put’ fatherhood, which highlights the complexity of male stayers’ socio-spatial im/mobilities and extends the understanding of left-behind fatherhood beyond intra-family dynamics. It suggests gender reconfiguration associated with men’s stay-put status should be read in the light of its embeddedness in transnational socio-structural contexts.
... To further explore mediated immobilities, I apply the concept of 'network capital', underlining how uneven access to resources, capacities, and social networks stir forced immobility within digital spaces. For instance, studies have shown how migrants are often forced to disconnect as a result of asymmetrical technological access and competencies in using digital technologies Cabalquinto, 2022;Leurs, 2014;Lim, 2016;Wilding, 2006). The asymmetrical technological landscape between the host and home countries of the migrants constrain digital media use (Cabalquinto, 2018b;Parreñas, 2005;Wilding, 2006). ...
Ubiquitous mobile communication technologies have played an integral role in the way people navigated forced physical immobilities produced through restrictive measures during a pandemic. This paper critically investigates how 15 ageing people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Victoria, Australia used a range of digital communication technologies and online platforms to cope during the 2020 lockdown. The study deploys the mobilities lens (Urry, 2007) in analysing a data set based on conducting remote and in-depth interviewing. It foregrounds how everyday and multi-scalar digital behaviours afford cultural and social connectedness, reflecting diverse forms of care practices. However, forced immobile practices emerged as shaped by disproportionate network capital. In sum, this study puts forward a nuanced perspective in understanding the scales and textures of (im)mobile practices of ageing migrants during a lockdown in Australia.
... To further explore mediated immobilities, I apply the concept of 'network capital', underlining how uneven access to resources, capacities, and social networks stir forced immobility within digital spaces. For instance, studies have shown how migrants are often forced to disconnect as a result of asymmetrical technological access and competencies in using digital technologies Cabalquinto, 2022;Leurs, 2014;Lim, 2016;Wilding, 2006). The asymmetrical technological landscape between the host and home countries of the migrants constrain digital media use (Cabalquinto, 2018b;Parreñas, 2005;Wilding, 2006). ...
Drawing from a conceptual framework that problematises and redefines the digital lives of older people aged 65 years and over, this panel explores how older people engage with digital communication tools and skills, and the way this plays out in their everyday lives. Each paper situates older people as experiencing a rich social life integrated with digital technologies and understood in terms of multi-faceted disparities in internet use, skills and modes of digital participation. How older people’s digital lives are negotiated and developed, and the particular frustrations and barriers to their digital participation, are situated as particular to their cultural context for use of communication tools. This panel thus contributes new understanding of how older people’s digital lives are emerging, moving away from simplistic descriptions of skills, to the multi-faceted and complex negotiations occurring when older people make decisions about connecting with digital tools.
Digital media are transforming families and relationships. Whether these changes are best thought of as positive or negative needs to be considered within a larger context of social transformation, in which changing gender roles and labor markets, cultural norms of intimacy and relationships, and globalization and migration are also contributing to rapid changes in family life. Drawing on recent theoretical developments that emphasize family as a set of practices and digital media as simultaneously social and technological, this chapter considers the intersections of family and technology across the life course, from partnering to pregnancy and adoption to parenting, family support, and aged care. The evidence suggests a mixed impact of digital media on family life. The popularity of digital media suggests that there is a strong desire for families to remain in touch and that people use digital media to maintain strong bonds of intimacy and family connection, even when circumstances require them to live at a distance. In some cases, access to digital media is contributing to the democratization of relationships across gender, class, and age groups. At the same time, it appears that digital media are also capable of both reinforcing existing inequalities and generating new asymmetries of power. To illustrate these complex trends, examples are drawn from a rich and growing body of research on how families are using digital media around the world and with what consequences, including the experiences of migrants and refugees.
In this paper, I showcase how left-behind mothers in the Philippines use digital communication technologies in delivering care to their overseas adult children in Melbourne, Australia. As part of a broader research project on transnational family life, the findings were drawn upon in-depth interviews, visual methods, a simple participant observation, and field notes taking and analysis. The study deployed a mediated mobilities lens, paying close attention to the different forces that shape the provision of intergenerational care through mobile device use. Building upon a critical analysis of the digitalization of intergenerational relationships in a transnational context, I coin the term ‘standby mothering.’ This conception encapsulates the femininized, ubiquitous, networked, and ambivalent intergenerational care practices that are experienced and negotiated by distant mothers. On the one hand, mobile device use enables left-behind mothers to deliver emotional and practical caregiving. On the other hand, everyday temporal conditions and technological barriers impede the provision of intergenerational care. Communicative constraints are constantly managed through various tactics, ensuring the sustenance of transnational relationships. By interrogating the contradictory outcomes of transnational caregiving, I underscore the politics of mediated mobilities in a digital society. Here, the mobilization of gendered, networked, and differential care practices is influenced by uneven structural and even socio-technological dimensions. Ultimately, this paper elucidates a critical stance on re-examining the provision of informal, gendered, and networked care practices.
This chapter interrogates the theory of networked individualism by focusing on families’ use of social media and messaging apps in Malaysia. In the first instance, networked individualism posits urbanisation, geographical, and social mobility as laying the foundations for the development of ego-centred networks. These factors are said to weaken family and community cohesiveness rooted in shared locality, experiences and social connections. There is a tension in the theory, however, as the same information and communication technologies that are seen to be intensifying the effects of these social changes are also noted to be instrumental in maintaining the relevance of families. This can be seen primarily through their use of the internet and mobile phones to maintain supportive and affective ties. Networked individualism has a respectable history of empirical support, but mostly in a north American context. This chapter draws upon data from Malaysia in order to contribute to the debate. It focuses in particular on the family, noting that patterns of multigenerational households and strong family orientations demonstrate how uses of social media and messaging apps are embedded in sociocultural values that tend to counterbalance the individualistic choices implicit in networked individualism. That said, there are also examples of Malaysians using social media and messaging apps to separate themselves from the influence of their families.
This paper examines the pivotal role of digital communication technologies in the provision of transnational caregiving among geographically separated family members. Particularly, it examines the consequences of mobile device use in facilitating the circulation and consumption of money and consumer goods among 21 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Melbourne, Australia, and their left-behind family members in the Philippines. By deploying a mediated mobilities lens in analysing the data drawn upon in-depth interviews, photo elicitation, and field notetaking, I coin the term ‘elastic carework’ to articulate the contradictory outcomes of mobile caregiving at a distance as shaped by the entanglement of social structures and technological infrastructures. On the one hand, caregiving at a distance enables transnational family members to enact affective exchanges, fulfil obligations and cement intimate ties. On the other hand, it can also become a source of frustration and unsettling feelings, which are often dealt with personalised tactics. Ultimately, this paper provides a vantage point in re-thinking the performance, embodiment and negotiation of a family-based and networked caregiving at a distance in the age of global migration.
This study focuses on infocomm illiterate parents in Singapore and the
challenges which they face in guiding and controlling their children’s new media usage.
Singaporean families are fast embracing new ICTs, such as computers and mobile phones,
for their functional and symbolic value. However, these new technologies are
predominantly the domain of the young; and older, infocomm illiterate Singaporean
parents are finding it difficult to keep up with these technologies which are assuming
growing importance within the household. As a consequence, these parents are seeing
their traditional roles as teachers, guardians, decision-makers and gatekeepers challenged.
This study observes that infocomm illiterate parents have minimal control over their
children’s new media usage. Furthermore, apart from a role reversal where infocomm
illiterate parents receive instruction from their children on the use of new media, a
situation of dependency has developed where some parents rely heavily on their children
for help in the use of new technologies.
In the Philippines, mobile phones are actively used across the population, including the large numbers of Filipino citizens working abroad, a majority of them women. This article investigates how television advertising of mobile phones engages culturally relevant roles of mothers to attract women as technology consumers. Using semiotic analysis, the article explores how these promotional messages perpetuate mothering ideologies and propose how best to harness communication technologies in the service of motherhood in this glocal setting. Within a predominantly Catholic and Marian nation, images of the efficient, nurturing, and self-sacrificial mother should not be viewed as benign or power-neutral. Strategies to increase market share in an increasingly competitive sector perpetuate multiple subjectivities.
This article introduces and provides the context for the themed section on mobile communication in Asia. It suggests that much work remains to be done in adequately grasping the new mobile, mediated face of communication in the very diverse Asian region. It also suggests that such a new direction in research needs to go hand in hand with rethinking the conceptual and theoretical bases of mobile, and indeed, Internet and computer-mediated communication.
The years following the Cultural Revolution saw the arrival of television as part of China's effort to 'modernize' and open up to the West. Endorsed by the Deng Xiaoping regime as a 'bridge' between government and the people, television became at once the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party and the most popular form of entertainment for Chinese people living in the cities. But the authorities failed to realize the unmatched cultural power of television to inspire resistance to official ideologies, expectations, and lifestyles. The presence of television in the homes of the urban Chinese strikingly broadened the cultural and political awareness of its audience and provoked the people to imagine better ways of living as individuals, families, and as a nation. Originally published in 1991, set within the framework of China's political and economic environment in the modernization period, this insightful analysis is based on ethnographic data collected in China before and after the Tiananmen Square disaster. From interviews with leading Chinese television executives and nearly one hundred families in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Xian, the author outlays how Chinese television fosters opposition to the government through the work routines of media professionals, television imagery, and the role of critical, active audience members.
Internet Society investigates Internet use and its implications for society through insights into the daily experiences of ordinary users. Drawing on an original study of non-professional, 'ordinary' users at home, this book examines how people interpret, domesticate, and creatively appropriate the Internet by integrating it into the projects and activities of their everyday lives.
An examination of how the mobile phone has become part of the fabric of society—as did such earlier technologies as the clock and the car.
Why do we feel insulted or exasperated when our friends and family don't answer their mobile phones? If the Internet has allowed us to broaden our social world into a virtual friend-net, the mobile phone is an instrument of a more intimate social sphere. The mobile phone provides a taken-for-granted link to the people to whom we are closest; when we are without it, social and domestic disarray may result. In just a few years, the mobile phone has become central to the functioning of society. In this book, Rich Ling explores the process by which the mobile phone has become embedded in society, comparing it to earlier technologies that changed the character of our social interaction and, along the way, became taken for granted.
Ling, drawing on research, interviews, and quantitative material, shows how the mobile phone (and the clock and the automobile before it) can be regarded as a social mediation technology, with a critical mass of users, a supporting ideology, changes in the social ecology, and a web of mutual expectations regarding use. By examining the similarities and synergies among these three technologies, Ling sheds a more general light on how technical systems become embedded in society and how they support social interaction within the closest sphere of friends and family.
Contributors: Ien Ang, Colin Campbell, Cynthia Cockburn, Jonathan Gershuny, Sonia Livingstone, Ian Miles, Daniel Miller, David Morley, Grahame Murdock, Tim Putnam, Marilyn Strathern, Diane Zimmerman Umble, Jane Wheelock