New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile Communication is Reshaping Social Cohesion (review)

Cellphones exploded onto the U.S. scene, going from commercial launch in the mid- 1980s to 88% penetration by 2008 and penetrating still further in Ling's Norway. They clearly enable us to be in contact when we previously couldn't. And they have become a cultural icon: cellphone-shaped balloons, parents hearing kids feigning adult cellphone conversations on their toys—"have your secretary call my secretary."

Undoubtedly cellphones can challenge social norms. A few examples suffice:

• • A couple walking down street together with each talking to someone else on a cellphone.

• • A plumber summoned to Ling's Oslo house for a leak strolled into Ling's home as house guests were saying goodbye. The plumber's refusal to interrupt his cell call to introduce himself, or ask permission to enter, violated Ling's sense of social norms, not repaired by the plumber's nodding to Ling and removing his shoes per the Norwegian custom.

• • Whether we should flush when someone in the adjacent bathroom stall is on an important call.

• • What cellphone conversations should be off-limits in public?

Rich Ling tackles such social implications of the cellphone—an understudied phenomenon relative to the Internet, perhaps because the cellphone seemed like a nifty phone with an infinitely long extension cord whereas the Internet was sui generis. Ling concludes that the cellphone strengthens our "bounded solidarity" with our stronger ties like friends and family by enabling us to contact them "24-7" at the expense of those physically proximate.

What I liked about the book:

• • First, beginning with a solid dose of classic sociology and social capital, Ling skillfully unpacks the hidden nuances and social dance of cellphone calls and texting across lots of settings (joking, banter, gossip, flirting) and acknowledges cellphones' role in microcoordination, and extending our sense of safety and security.

• • In so doing, Ling helps us (a la William Whyte) to view the mundane of cellphone calls through an insightful inward lens: e.g., how a cellphone ringing during a funeral requires the receiver of the "erupting" call to balance the competing social claims on his time, figure out which is dominant, and be "co-present" in both spaces. Or how calls pre- or post-meeting can extend the impact of the "flesh time"? Or understanding the social processing occurring among teens texting during class.

• • Third, Ling reveals interesting new facts: e.g., 34% of 19-24 year-olds find it easier to express feelings on SMS than face-to-face (F2F) or by phone (167). I was heartened that cellphones may hence lower the barriers for teen flirting (123-129) while simultaneously worrying that SMS may undermine useful learning in how to express F2F feelings.

How the book could have been made stronger:

• • First, as interesting as the book was, its hypothesis did not seem brittle: what could Ling have learned from listening to calls to question his hypothesis that cell ritual was not being enacted and solidarity built. (If a hypothesis can't be disproven, it is a definitional truism, not a hypothesis.) I wasn't persuaded by Ling's invocation of cellphone usage as "totem" and felt Ling could have reached similar conclusions via bonding and bridging social capital. Ling seems to want to posit that all this mundane communications lead to social cohesion, but the ritual analogy seems stretched unless any social interaction is ritualistic. Moreover, it seems equally plausible that many mundane or shallow conversations ("do we need milk?", "where is the car parked?", "I'll call you when I get to the office", "can you hear me now?"); could as easily erode meaningful social ties as strengthen them. The impact must be contextual which is hard to fathom since Ling listens only to one side of conversations. (Ling does review some of the evidence in Chaps. 9-10: e.g., heavy cellphone users are more integrated into peer groups and texting and cellphone usage was positively correlated with F2F time within a...