Mobile phone “work”: Disengaging and engaging mobile phone activities with concurrent activities

This chapter introduces some methodological issues raised by the study of the situated use of mobile technologies. It discusses a specific video recording kit best suited for observing these situations. The chapter focuses on boundary issues during mobile phone use, examines how an intermittent, text-based chat interacts with proximal activities such as eating, drinking, and looks at one’s physical surroundings. It also focuses on the detailed analysis of the practices through which users combine various features of a remote exchange while simultaneously involved in the interactions and activities embedded in their proximal contexts. Studies of mobility have stressed the mobility of portable phone users. Short Message Service (SMS) Chat is an application that enables two-way chatting via SMS text messaging, during which users type a text message into the phone. The chapter provides a new methodological approach and also examines its relevance in the analysis of how one organizes remote mobile phone communication in a local space.