Tricks, Lies, and Mobile Phones: ‘Phone Friend’ Stories in Papua New Guinea

Andersen, Barbara

doi:10.1080/14735784.2013.811886

Cited by 48 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…74, 87;"Calling an End to Poverty," 2005;Jensen, 2007;"Less is More," 2005;Mariscal & Bonina, 2008, p. 76; "To Do With the Price of Fish," 2007). Insightful papers on mobile phones in PNG have been published in recent years (Andersen, 2013; Groupe Speciale Mobile Association [GSMA], 2014;Jorgensen, 2014;Lipset, 2013;Logan, 2012;Singh & Nadarajah, 2011;Sullivan, 2010;Suwamaru, 2014;Telban & Vavrova, 2014;Temple, 2011;Yamo, 2013) and as will be outlined in the Discussion section of this paper, these in the main support the findings of this study.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 87%

From garamut to mobile phone: Communication change in rural Papua New Guinea

Watson

Duffield

2015

Mobile Media & Communication

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This article presents the attitudinal response of rural villagers in Papua New Guinea to mobile telephony, based on a threshold study made during the early stages of its adoption. The research indicates that the introduction of mobile telecommunications has generally been viewed positively, with mobile phones affording social interaction with loved ones. Nonetheless, negative concerns have been strongly felt, notably financial costs and anxiety about mobile phones aiding in the coordination of extramarital liaisons and criminal activities. The communities investigated previously had scant access to modern communication technologies, some still using traditional means such as wooden slit drums, known locally as garamuts. The expansion of mobile network coverage has introduced into communal village life the capability to communicate dyadically and privately at a distance. Investigation into the adoption of mobile phones thus promotes understanding about traditional means of communication and notions of public and private interactions.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 87%

From garamut to mobile phone: Communication change in rural Papua New Guinea

Watson

Duffield

2015

Mobile Media & Communication

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“…This is clearly seen in how young women use the mobile to act in ways with men that are not in accordance with established female gender roles. For instance, employing the mobile's capacity to make anonymous phone calls, young women use the mobile to ‘experiment with stereotypically masculine powers of verbal artistry, influence and persuasion’ (Andersen : 321). Young women trick or lie about their identity, are overtly flirtatious, provocative, swear, make sexual insinuations or promises for future encounters (Andersen : 2).…”

Section: ‘Do You Have a Mobile?’ Extending The Breadth Of Social Relamentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Do you have a mobile?’ Mobile phone practices and the refashioning of social relationships in Port Vila Town

Kraemer

2015

Australian J of Anthropology

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Mobile phones have quickly become an important part of young people's social relationships in Port Vila Vanuatu. In particular, young people embrace the new technology's capacity to broaden the breadth of their sociality. They use the mobile phone to facilitate private and secretive communication, engage in unsanctioned relationships, pre-marital sexual relationships, and also multiple concurrent intimate relationships. Literature on mobile phone use often either takes the approach that mobile phone technology becomes purely incorporated into pre-existing social practices, or that it dramatically reshapes social ontologies. The present article argues for an alternative view, one that takes into account the nuances between these two analytical poles. This article suggests that young people use the mobile phone in practices informed by previous models of social relationships, yet the specific materiality of the mobile phone technology is influencing the direction in which models of social relationships are changing. In demonstrating this point, I pay particular attention to two material aspects of the mobile phone technology -the mobile phone as a repository of a particular kind of information -'evidence', and the capacity of the mobile phone to 'disconnect' people from their relationships by switching off the mobile. This article argues that these practices are influencing the emergence of a radically altered kinship and gender landscape in the urban context.

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“…Women in various Melanesian contexts have been found to use mobile phones to make and receive cold calls to identify potential romantic partners, or ‘phone friends’ (Andersen, ; Jorgensen, ; Kraemer, ; G. Hobbis, , ). During the ensuing conversations they tease, flirt and joke and, significantly, as Andersen (: 319) suggests, they ‘experiment with stereotypically masculine powers of verbal artistry, influence and persuasion’. In other words, anthropological research suggests that Melanesian women creatively challenge male dominance and gendered inequalities through their usages of mobile phones.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile phones, gender‐based violence, and distrust in state services: Case studies from Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea

Hobbis

2018

Asia Pacific Viewpoint

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This paper examines the potential benefits and pitfalls of mobile phones for accessing social services, particularly in response to gender‐based violence, in Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Drawing on 13 months of ethnographic field research, I show how mobile phones increase rather than decrease perceived distances between social service providers and those they intend to serve. Mobile phones exaggerate the visibility of the shortcomings of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea states and solidify an already entrenched distrust in the state and state services. This distrust is accentuated in experiences with mobile phone‐based mediations of gender‐based violence. Despite the positive influences of mobile phones, they are also recognised as conduits of violence. As such, mobile phones are not only morally ambivalent technologies but also, at times, actively disliked and their use discouraged. This challenges the optimism that surrounds many information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) projects. When assessing the potentials, successes, and failures of ICT4D programmes, there is a need to pay more attention to the consequences of ‘negative’ or ‘unreliable’ usages of mobile phones as relational technologies.

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Tricks, Lies, and Mobile Phones: ‘Phone Friend’ Stories in Papua New Guinea

Cited by 48 publications

References 17 publications

From garamut to mobile phone: Communication change in rural Papua New Guinea

From garamut to mobile phone: Communication change in rural Papua New Guinea

‘Do you have a mobile?’ Mobile phone practices and the refashioning of social relationships in Port Vila Town

Mobile phones, gender‐based violence, and distrust in state services: Case studies from Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea

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