Talk Whenever, Wherever : How the US Mobile Phone Industry Commodifies Talk, Genders Youth Mobile Practices, and Domesticates Surveillance

Mobile service provider commercials afford insight into contemporary expectations and norms of cell phone use within the family structure and reveal current tensions and gendered expectations related to the domestication of technology. This article analyzes forty-two US cell phone commercials from 2005 to 2014. The sample only considers commercials that include parents, youth, and families. Discourse analysis considers the themes, gendered representations, and constructions of technology as portrayed by the cell phone industry. I identify three dominant themes throughout the commercials: (1) the commodification of talk, (2) gendered stereotypes of teens, moms, and dads, and (3) the legitimization of surveillance, mostly around teen girls. Additionally, I argue the sociotechnical shift from talking to texting to data plays a significant role in the evolution of how mobile practices are constructed and gendered