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Since its inception billions of years ago, the evolution of life on earth has been shaped by two highly consistent physical constraints: Physical proximity was always a precondition for organisms to initiate and maintain continuing interactive relations; Stable dwelling places were necessary for the development of more complex forms of communication and cooperation. The restraining effects of these two physical factors seem to increase in the course of biological and socio-cultural evolution, because they collide more and more with some other outcomes of this same evolution: the increase of spatial mobility on the one hand and the growing capacities for communication on the other.

Certainly, the landline phone has eliminated the prerequisite of physical proximity, but on the other hand it has preserved (or even reinforced) the need to stay at specific places. While there are conditions under which individuals on the move are at least able to continue face-to-face interaction (e.g. by sitting in the same train compartment), they have to remain at home or at the office in order to be reached by remote callers.

Seen in this very broad evolutionary perspective, the significance of the mobile phone lies in empowering people to engage in communication, which is at the same time free from the constraints of physical proximity and spatial immobility. The mobile phone can be seen as a device that amplifies this trend, by empowering moving individuals to connect to any distant partners at any point in time, regardless of location and speed. Thus, one of the major social functions of cell phones is to provide a “nomadic intimacy� by making it possible for people on the move to remain embedded in their personal social networks.

As they are used by everybody, cell phones create a new aspect in which all human beings are equal, i.e. irrespective of age, gender, cultural ground, wealth, income or hierarchical position. The cell phone bridges at least some gaps between different social classes.

No other device has been diffused as rapidly as the mobile phone, but its social impact is unknown. This paper aims to provide a sound research base for assessing the impact of the mobile phone communication on work/life balance. In particular, it examines the ways in which the mobile phone affords perpetual social contact.

The invention and diffusion of information and communication technologies are said to be revolutionizing work and family life. Wireless mobile devices increase the scope for work and family flexibility by enabling the micro-coordination of time, tasks, and schedules. This is particularly significant as people are now working at times and places outside of the traditional workday and place.

It is widely believed that technologies like the mobile phone and e-mail are blurring boundaries between personal life and the workplace. While for some commentators these developments represent a threat to the quality of modern life, for others they represent new opportunities for integrating the spheres of work and family.

To date, social research on the mobile phone has been limited and has yet to be consolidated into a body of evidence about its social impact. Worldwide there are now over 1.7 billion mobile phones, more even than fixed line phones. It will therefore fill a significant gap in the evidence base for the development of industry and social policy.

A more informed understanding of the conditions that have been conducive to this highly successful industry depends upon high quality research on how we benefit from owning mobile technologies. The research findings have the potential to influence the type and range of wireless services that will best serve in the future.

Like other technologies, the mobile phone is flexible and contains contradictory possibilities. We believe that this paper will provide, hard data on mobile phone use that will be of interest both to the industry and to those studying the social impact of technological innovation.

James E. Katz, a leading authority on social consequences of communication technology, analyzes the way new mobile telecommunication affects daily life both in the United States and around the world.

“Magic in the air� is the most wide-ranging analysis of mobile communication to date. Katz investigates the spectrum of social aspects of the cell phone’s impact on society and the way social forces affect the use, display, and reconfiguration of the cell phone. Surveying the mobile phone’s current and emerging role in daily life, he finds that it provides many benefits for the user, and that some of these benefits are subtle and even counter-intuitive. He also identifies ways the mobile phone has not been entirely positive. He also discusses use and abuse of mobile phones in educational settings, where he finds that their use is helping students to cheat on exams and cut class. Parents no longer object to their children having mobile phones in class in a post-Columbine and 9/11 era; instead they are pressing schools to change their rules to allow students to have their mobiles available during class. And mobile phone misbehavior is by no means limited to students; Katz finds that teachers are increasingly taking calls in the middle of class, even interrupting their own lectures to answer what they claim are important calls.

Katz also explores the often overlooked psychic and religious uses of the mobile phone, an area that has only recently begun to command scholarly interest. The study provides an evidence-based understanding of the social impact of the mobile phone on work/life balance. The study is specifically designed to provide representative data on how mobile phones have become integrated into the everyday lives. This produces direct information about how people use their mobiles to manage and coordinate their lives.

As users can decide themselves to whom they make their phone numbers known, they possess a new means of controlling the access to their inner circle of “closer friends� and of symbolically expressing closeness or distance to specific acquaintances:

Several entrepreneurs say they use their mobiles as means of deliberately absenting themselves from their present environments and so keeping other people at bay: ‘If I arrive at a meeting where I don’t know anyone, I play for time and composure by doing things with my mobile.� This sends out other messages to the room as well: it says that one is busy and not to be disturbed, and temporarily extends one’s personal space. On the other hand, switching off the cell phone is a new way to show deference to present partners or to articulate the “dignity of the occasion�.

Considering the high potential of cell phones to support rather segregated, self-controlled social networks, it is not astonishing that they can catalyze the emergence of sub cultural segregations: with adults concentrating on voice calls, while young people embraced text mails characterized by group-specific linguistic habits and codes:

Contrary to the fixed phone, which promoted the establishment of highly generalized linguistic forms (e.g. answering formats like “Hello� etc.), the cell phone may facilitate the emergence of linguistic habits peculiar to particular families or friendship circles.

Under conventional technological conditions, preplanning was inevitable because people had no means of communicating at later points in time. Especially when participants were already on the move, no opportunities existed for changing appointments.

From this perspective, it is evident that cell phones reduce the need for temporal pre-planning, in so far as rearrangements can be made at any moment, even very shortly before the agreed time. Thus, a new, more fluid culture of informal social interaction can emerge which is less based on ex-ante agreements, but more on current adhoc coordination which allows people to adapt to unpredictable short-term changes in circumstances, opportunities, or subjective preferences and moods.

Compared to people walking the streets or riding on public buses who are physically unprotected from intrusions of others, automobile drivers enjoy a kind of “ambulant privacy� by carrying with them a closed moving box which allows them to listen to personalized music or engage in private conversations with close family members riding in the same car.

Cell phone calls contrast with ongoing face-to-face interactions because role performances have to be exclusively based on verbal communication. In addition, the complete absence of visual cues (and the poverty of paralinguistic expressions) implies that practically all communication has to be based on linguistic articulations. The cell phone can be extremely useful for interconnecting emergency agencies with their environment, by increasing the likelihood that somebody watching an emergency event has a phone and is disposed to make a call.

In the fast-paced modern world, we had become severely restricted in both the quantity and quality of communication with our social network. Two-thirds of all human conversation is gossip. Mobile gossip restores our sense of connection and community, and provides an antidote to the pressures and alienation of modern life. The mobile phones by facilitating therapeutic gossip are a ‘social lifeline� in a fragmented and isolating world, helping us to recreate the more natural communication patterns of pre­industrial times. Gossip is not a trivial pastime. It is essential to human social, psychological and even physical well-being. Gossip is the human equivalent of ‘social grooming� among primates, which has been shown to stimulate production of endorphins, relieving stress and boosting the immune system.

The space-age technology of mobile phones has allowed us to return to the more natural and humane communication patterns of pre-industrial society, when we lived in small, stable communities, and enjoyed frequent ‘grooming talk� with a tightly integrated social network. Mobile phones are the new garden fence. Mobiles have increased and enhanced this vital therapeutic activity, by allowing us to gossip ‘anytime, anyplace, anywhere� and to text as well as talk. Mobile gossip is an effective and important new stress-buster.

Men gossip at least as much as women, especially on their mobiles. Thirty-three percent of men indulge in mobile gossip every day or almost every day, compared with twenty­six percent of women. Men gossip for just as long and about the same subjects as women, but tend to talk more about themselves. Men are more likely to gossip with work colleagues, partners and female friends, while women gossip more with same-sex friends and family. But women are more skilled than men at making gossip entertaining - three factors are involved: highly animated tone, plenty of detail and enthusiastic ‘feed�.

Enjoyment of gossip is also about the thrill of risk-taking, doing something a bit naughty, talking about people’s ‘private� lives - this is particularly important for the reserved and inhibited English, but all humans have inbuilt need for risk-taking. Only about five per cent of gossip-time is devoted to criticism and negative evaluation of others - but this ‘negative gossip� has clear social benefits in terms of rule-learning and social bonding.

Mobile as ‘symbolic bodyguard�: Women use their mobile phones as ‘symbolic bodyguards� when feeling vulnerable in public places - in the way that they used to use a newspaper of magazine as a ‘barrier signal�.

Mobile gossip is enhanced by the use of the text message as a ‘trailer�, alerting friends to the fact that one is in possession of an interesting item of gossip, but saving the details for a phone call or meeting. Texting is particularly important in maintaining contact with a wide social network - allows us to maintain social bonds even when we do not have the time, energy, inclination or budget for calls or visits. Texting recreates the brief, frequent, spontaneous ‘connections� with members of our social network. Texting helps teenagers (and some adult males) to overcome awkwardness and inhibitions and to develop social and communication skills - they communicate with more people and more frequently, than they did before mobiles.

Considering the (still) rather elevated time-based fees for audio-connections on the one hand and the very low bandwidth of SMS on the other, it is evident that cell phones are not very useful when highly complex, elaborate communication has to be activated. Because the maximum size of text messages is strictly limited, there is an extensive use of homophones, cognates and abbreviations that are understood only within rather small groups consisting of intimate members who have developed a common code during a rather long time of interaction.

Another attractive feature of SMS is that the costs of message exchanges is shared by the two senders, while phone call costs have to be paid exclusively by the caller, regardless of how much the receiver contributes to the conversation. Thus, SMS allows for an equilibrated “economic exchange� which is highly preferred by partners not (yet) involved in an informal social relationship.

Thus to conclude: The lowest mobile phone use is found among those aged 60 years or more, but the mobile phone is so universally diffused that use is unaffected by income levels and occupation. The majority of users are subscribers and prepaid use is concentrated among those under 25 years. Around a quarter of managers and associate professionals have their bills paid by their employer.

‘Convenience� of the mobile phone is the reason most frequently given for choosing to talk on a mobile rather than a landline. ‘Cost� is a major reason for preferring to talk using a landline rather than a mobile. Logs of actual calls made and SMS texts sent show that the predominant use of the mobile is for contacting family and friends, with work-related reasons far less important. Men make more calls for business purposes, while women use the mobile for social connectivity.

Over two-thirds of the respondents report that the mobile phone is an important medium for maintaining kinship ties, especially for women. The mobile is a device well suited to maintaining intimate relationships at a geographical distance. Conveying information about ‘timing of the arrival at home� and ‘arranging to meet with other family members� are the major uses of the mobile phone for micro-coordination. Among parents, ‘arranging to deliver goods or children� and ‘finding out where children are� is rated as important.

The mobile phone is an indispensable part of the everyday life. More than 90% report that their lives could not ‘proceed as normal� if they were suddenly without their mobile phone.

The data support the conclusion that while the cell phone has easily won total victory on the behavioral level of everyday usage, it has nevertheless not (yet) become an item to which much attitudinal commitment is attached.