Mobile telephony, new interaction rituals?

The nature of conversation and the organisation required to undertake conversation has long been understood (Schegloff, 1968, 1972,1973,1974,1978,1979; Goffman, 1959) and the nature of the negotiations required to undertake such a complex yet workaday task have been clearly set out. The aim of this paper is to suggest ways in which the introduction of the mobile telephone with complexities of its own have changed the nature of communication and the norms which accompany the interactions. The paper also discusses the nature of public and private space and the ways in which mobile telephony is changing the use of the public aren