Presence, Telepresence and the Cell Phone

• In Event: Stability and Change: Presence of the Word in a World of Cell Phones

Abstract

In the1990 essay titled Technological Development, Walter Ong explicates the basic essence of “presence” by describing it as a “persona-to-person relationship, not thought-to-word-to-thing relationship” (Farrell & Soukup, 2002 An Ong Reader: Challenges for Further Inquiry, Hampton Press, p. 498). The complex dynamics inherent in the various forms of mediation represented by the cell phone (voice telephony, text transmission, photographic capturing, video capturing, video download, music playback GPS tracking, email communication, web surfing, etc.) represent a rich conceptual mosaic through which we can examine the ontic effects of these types of communication technologies on the sense of self and the creation of culture. Specifically, the phenomenological understanding of “presence” and its technical cousin “telepresence” will be explored as we assess the contemporary role of the cell phone and its deterministic shaping of our sense of the immediate and the real.

Author

• Edward Tywoniak, Saint Mary's College