The Global Smartphone: Beyond a Youth Technology (Ageing with Smartphones)

Description

A look at the adoption of smartphones by older people across the globe. The smartphone is often literally right in front of our nose--but do we really know what it is, or what its consequences are for people's lives around the world? This volume presents the findings of eleven anthropologists in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America on the adoption of smartphones by older people. Their research reveals that smartphones are a technology for everyone, not just for the young. The Global Smartphone presents a series of original perspectives deriving from a comparative research project on the ways that people use smartphones. The smartphone is unprecedented in the degree to which the user can transform it. It follows that in order to comprehend it, we must take into consideration a range of national and cultural nuances, such as visual communication in China and Japan, mobile money in Cameroon and Uganda, and access to health information in Chile and Ireland--all alongside diverse trajectories of aging in Al Quds, Brazil, and Italy. Cover Half-title Title page Copyright information Table of contents Chapter summaries List of figures List of abbreviations List of contributors Series Foreword Acknowledgements 1 Introduction The smart and the phone An outline of our project The fieldsites Bento, São Paulo, Brazil Cuan, Ireland Dar al-Hawa, Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) Kampala, Uganda Kyoto and Kōchi, Japan NoLo, Milan, Italy Santiago, Chile Shanghai, China Thornhill, Dublin, Ireland Yaoundé, Cameroon History of the smartphone Anthropology and other disciplines Externalities Conclusion Notes 2 What people say about smartphones The state and the media Citizenship and consensus Commerce: the smartphone and app industries People’s discourse and ambivalence The unambivalent Fake news Academic studies of these discourses Conclusion Notes 3 The smartphone in context Smartphones as objects Smartphones and status The cost of smartphones Problems of access Screen Ecology Social Ecology Networks Conclusion Notes 4 From apps to everyday life Introduction: not starting with apps The app interviews Scalable Solutionism How the world changed the app Health beyond solutionism Apps and screens Where do apps come from? Conclusion Notes 5 Perpetual Opportunism Opportunistic photography Maps/movement/travel News and information Audio entertainment Conclusion Notes 6 Crafting Crafting: the artisanal transformation of smartphones and lives Crafting the individual Relationships Religion Cultural norms Conclusion Notes 7 Age and smartphones Youth and intergenerational relationships How smartphones make people younger Teaching and learning smartphone skills Specialist apps and devices Problems and benefits associated with smartphones Conclusion Notes 8 The heart of the smartphone: LINE, WeChat and WhatsApp A brief history The visual expression of emotions and care The transformation of family From family to community WhatsApp and religion The useful app Commerce and corporations Conclusion Notes 9 General and theoretical reflections Introduction The Transportal Home Beyond the anthropomorphic machine The Relational Smartphone Contradiction and ambivalence Surveillance Care Ideology, privacy and the fine line between care and surveillance Conclusion: ‘smart from below’ Notes Appendix: methodology and content The context Ethnography Comparison and generalisation Ethics Dissemination Notes Bibliography Index