The debate over the social use of the mobile phone has been enriched by a large
amount of information and reflection as to how this instrument has modified
interpersonal relations, changed roles in the family, re-defined the limits of
communicative possibilities, rewritten the present functioning of institutions such
as hospitals and schools, as well as the modus operandi of criminal organizations,
intensified work rhythms, rationalized the organization of work relations, in a
word, how the use of the mobile has profoundly changed society.2 On the
contrary, less attention has been dedicated to the reconstruction and analysis of
the impulse that its users have given the mobile (see its unexpected transformation,
from the king of orality to a means of writing and reading). The main
thesis of this article is that the mobile is changing not only society, but above all
the framework in which society lives. This framework is made up of space and
time as its primary determinations, which are able to integrate, stabilize and
structure reality. The mobile changes reality in its widest sense, or rather its social
representation. Let us remember with McLuhan (1964), Meyrowitz (1985) and
many other scholars, that the medium is not only the message, but also a specific
concept of time and space, that is, a specific dimension of existence. In the
following sections, above all the changes that have been brought about to space
and time will be dealt with, and then how the statute of the presence and absence
of individuals in social space is modified will be analysed, how the relation between
modern citizens changes radically with public space, and finally how the
democratic process is enriched by further implementations.
