Mobile phones, discourse and generative identity processes

Abstract

This paper explores some of the numerous elements that contribute to the discourse of mobile phone use in Australia. The article details the findings of a research project that uses discourse analysis (DA) to investigate identity construction and the new media discourse of mobile phone use within an Australian cultural context. The research project qualitatively investigates the socially constructed discursive effects of mobile phone use by 18 to 35 year olds in the Hunter region of Australia. The themes with dialectical relationships that are currently being imparted are; always wanting to be connected but being relentlessly contactable, having continuous mobility but always being 'tied' to the mobile phone, connecting with an absent person but disconnecting with those who are physically present. The aim of the research is to identify and examine the emerging discourses connected with mobile phone communication within Australia and to explain the ways discourse contributes to generative identity processes in the practices of young Australians. In analysing the data to date, the paper elucidates the communicative activities of young Australians. These activities are functions of broader discourses; the specific cultural and interpersonal dynamics of the localised context, together with predispositions gained from past personal experiences.