Youth's Emotional Attachment to Mobile Phones

Ever since new technologies were introduced in different areas of youth’s daily life, they have been penetrating different spaces and times, routines and practices. Mobile phones have become essential tools through which young people communicate, exchange, play and develop more and more activities each day. Therefore, the sociological importance of these technological tools in everyday life is increasing.

As part of my postdoctoral research project, in this paper I am going to explore the current daily relationship young people have with mobile phones, paying special attention to the emotional side of this relationship. I will argue that youth’s emotional attachment to mobile phones is decisive to understand how mobile phones are socially integrated and taken for granted in their everyday live.

In this sense, I will explore the different emotional dynamics produced when using mobile phones, considering two dimensions: the more direct attachment to the device itself and the baste amount of communicative options enabled through the tool.

Based on quantitative (online survey) and qualitative (semi structured interviews) fieldwork, I will complement the more theoretical proposal with the empirical analysis of youth’s emotional attachment to mobile phones in the context of the Basque Country (Spain).