Mobile Intimacy: Telepresence, mobile technology, and romantic relationships

Abstract

Mobile media are quickly becoming primary sources of communication in everyday life. With this progress, comes the ability to experience an array of different degrees and types of presence. Individuals can be both in the physical presence of others as well as present with others at a distance by experiencing telepresence. This study examined the role of mobile media in the context of romantic relationships. It looked at the relationship between the senses of intimacy and telepresence as they were experienced by individuals. The theories of apparatgeist and perpetual contact were employed to describe the relationship between the nature of the technology, the associated behavior of its use, and the experience of various forms of telepresence. Interviews with fourteen participants provided the data analyzed in this qualitative study. These interviews were transcribed and used for a thematic analysis of presence and intimacy experience. The results describe a wide variance and nuanced reality of how individuals sense the presence of each other through mobile technology. These results contribute to an understanding of how individuals understand and talk about their experience of telepresence and also what it means to them in their personal lives.