| Summary: | The technologized urban environment has fundamental effects on us: it modifies our understanding of time, distance and privacy. For example, by talking on a mobile phone with someone who is waiting for you, you are already with that person. This means that the concepts of communality and communication need rethinking to fully understand the existing and emerging effects of technological development in socio-cultural reality. What does it mean in a space full of ubiquitous technology to ‘be with somebody’, or to ‘be present’? Clearly, a person forms a socially constructed physical and virtual hybrid space by using communication technology, but it should also be noted how social hierarchies and norms restrict or encourage the utilization of technology and the social interaction linked to it. Thus, technology can create new forms of sociality but, on the other hand, it can also produce new forms of separation and isolation related to gender, age, education and social status.
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