Heidegger’s cell phone – ubiquitous communication and existential distance

Authors

  • António Fidalgo Universidade da Beira Interior

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1982-8160.v3i1p81-98

Keywords:

cell phone, Heidegger, identity, authenticity, ubiquitous communication

Abstract

Is the cell phone an indispensable identitary element in the contemporary society or a factor of existential alienation and inauthenticity? Starting from the Heidegger’s analysis of human identity in Being and Time (first part) and from a wide-ranging literature review about mobile communication (second part), we try, in the third part of the text, to refuse Manichean positions, both the ones that condemns the cell phone as an alienation instrument, and the ones that greet them as a crucial object for the economic and social development. In the end, we outline an ethics of the cell phone from the conception of existential distance.

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Author Biography

  • António Fidalgo, Universidade da Beira Interior
    Professor de Ciências da Comunicação na Universidade da Beira Interior. Diretor do Laboratório de Comunicação On-line da mesma universidade.

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Published

2011-12-15

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2009)

Section

Dossier

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How to Cite

Fidalgo, A. (2011). Heidegger’s cell phone – ubiquitous communication and existential distance. MATRIZes, 3(1), 81-98. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1982-8160.v3i1p81-98