The price of being mobile: Youth, gender and mobile media

Since the 1997 financial crisis in the Asia-Pacific, countries in the region have sought to rebuild their economies by transforming their manufacturing industries into information societies. The mobile phone is not just symbolic of this shift towards new forms of economic, social and technological mobility; it also represents a set of material practices that helps to embed new technologies into existing social and cultural rituals. From the development of its hardware to its uptake in everyday life, the production and consumption of mobile media have· reconstituted the relationships surrounding technology, youth, gender, intimacy and labour. Nowhere is this more evident than in the use of mobile phones by young female consumers in the region.