CALL ME MAYBE: SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS AND TRUST ASSOCIATED WITH TELEPHONY

Abstract

This article focuses on the management and sentiments of telephony calling on smartphone among Swedish youth. Based on 47 semi-structured interviews and focus groups with youth aged 12-22 from 2016-2017, this study finds that decaying levels of trust in the medium of telephony has resulted in distinctions in hierarchies of intimacy and functionality. Youth expressed both high levels trust and distrust in traditional telephone calling in relation to impromptu calling. Unknown impromptu calls were associated with telemarketers, creating high levels of distrust in the medium of telephony. Impromptu calls from known contacts indicated a level of urgency and seriousness. Informants revealed complex system of norms in relation to impromptu and planned telephony calling from known callers, expressing specific temporal and spatial expectations for both short and long calls.