IngentaConnect Teenage Girls and Cellular Phones: Discourses of Independence, Sa...

Abstract:

The experience of youth, the impact of technology, and the assumptions of gender are experienced as natural by most individuals—as if due solely to biology or progress. Yet, as scholars have effectively demonstrated, social processes that are culturally and historically relative have a critical role in shaping our lived experiences. This paper will continue to build upon the examination of social construction through a unique analysis of the use of cellular phones by teenage girls that incorporates both the idealization of use presented in advertising images and the lived experiences of teenage girls. The functioning of three primary discourses will be outlined: the media discourse that emphasizes image and independence; the parental discourse that focuses upon danger and safety; and the youth discourse that highlights self-determination and sociability. Current advertising, it will be shown, is picking up on what adolescents today want: style, friendships, and individuality. For the young women interviewed, however, the desire for independence is mitigated by their parents' rules, an acceptance that the public world is a dangerous place, and a desire to act as a responsible young woman. The cellular telephone thus exists at the intersection of these competing discourses of independence, safety and femininity. And at this intersection, it will be argued, the cellular phone functions as a part of the `technology of the self', as posited by Michel Foucault, through which these young women are reminded of what is desired of them and are encouraged to reflect upon their actions and identities.

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Teenage Girls and Cellular Phones: Discourses of Independence, Safety and `Rebellion'