Mobile communication has become mainstream and even omnipresent. It is probably the most successful and certainly the new technology adopted quickly in the world : more than one in three people in the world has a mobile phone . This volume provides an overview of the cultural, family and interpersonal consequences of mobile communication worldwide . Leading scholars analyze the effect of mobile communication on all parts of life, the relationship between literacy and textual features of mobile phones to use ringtones as a form of social exchange, " consumer expectation" of the middle class families in India to the belief in some parts of Africa and Asia that mobile phones can communicate with the dead . The contributors explore the ways mobile communication profoundly affects the tempo, structure and process of daily life around the world. They discuss the impact of mobile communication on social networks , other communication strategies , traditional forms of social organization, and political activities. They consider how quickly miraculous technologies come to seem ordinary and even necessary - and how ordinary technology comes to seem mysterious and even miraculous . Chapters cut across social issues and geographical regions they highlight use by the elite and the masses, utilitarian and expressive functions , and political and operational consequences. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate how mobile communication has affected the quality of life in exotic and monotonous scenery, and how he held increasingly central to people's lives around the world