Evolving mobile communication practices of Irish teenagers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the social adoption of the mobile phone by Irish teenagers in city, town and rural settings. It aims to investigate two key areas that have influenced the teenagers' social adoption of the mobile phone: first, the influence of locational and socio‐economic factors on mobile phone usage; second, how the teenagers' adoption of recently emergent Web 2.0 applications (social‐networking web sites and instant messaging services) tends to bring about a re‐positioning of the mobile phone's role as a communications channel. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on a social shaping and domestication of media technologies approach, using original empirical data from a survey of teenage respondents and six focus groups. Findings – The findings suggest that the teenagers' relationship to the mobile phone is evolving as newer communications applications emerge. In particular, the technical competencies and media literacies necessary for multi‐model communication are evolving fastest where locational and socio‐economic conditions are most favourable. Originality/value – Although access to the mobile phone cuts across the strata of society, people's capacity to benefit from it – and from other forms of multi‐modal communication – is not evenly distributed. The paper argues that, despite universal ownership of the technological device among the sample of teenagers, the mobile phone is caught up in wider digital and socio‐economic divides.