‘Connected’ Presence: The Emergence of a New Repertoire for Managing Social Relationships in a Changing Communication Technoscape

Abstract

The aim of this research is to understand how the transformation of the communication technoscape allows for the development of particular patterns in the construction of social bonds. It provides evidence for the development of a ‘connected’ management of relationships, in which the (physically) absent party gains presence through the multiplication of mediated communication gestures on both sides, up to the point where copresent interactions and mediated distant exchanges seem woven into a single, seamless web. After reviewing some of the current social-science research, I rely on empirical studies of the uses of the home telephone, the mobile phone, and mobile text messaging in France to discuss how this particular repertoire of ‘connected’ relationships has gradually crystallized as these technologies have become widespread and as each additional communication resource has been made available to users. I also describe how such a ‘connected’ mode coexists with a previous way of managing ‘mediated’ relationships, in which communication technologies were thought to substitute or compensate for the rarity of face-to-face interactions.