A MODERN FETISH: THE VALUE OF THE MOBILE PHONE IN SOUTH KOREAN YOUTH CULTURE Jukka Jouhki Organizational Evolution and Dynamics Research Group (OED) Department of History and Ethnology, P.O.Box 35, FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland ABSTRACT This paper attempts to analyze the cultural significance of the mobile phone to the youths living in Seoul. It is based on the observation data produced by a group of communication students at Seoul National University. The paper presents the students’ observations on mobile phone use in the public and urban context of Seoul area as well as the students’ personal reflections on the subject. The paper further discusses the mobile phone as a significant element of Korean youth culture and, further, of the contemporary modern society. KEYWORDS Mobile phones, South Korea, youth culture. 1. INTRODUCTION TO A MOBILE CULTURE 1.1 A Mobile Phone is not Just a Phone It took some time for researchers to consider the mobile phone as a worthy object of research and something more than a telephone that one can carry with. In fact, from a cultural anthropologist’s view point the mobile phone is nothing less than a technological innovation par excellence, a r/evolution of communication and as a cultural influence at least as significant as the Internet (e.g. Horst & Miller 2006; Goggin 2006; Katz 2006). Today’s mobile phone is not only a media hub but also a device of fashion with visual and haptic qualities similar to those of the magical charms and tribal totems. In its miniature symbolism the phone is an everyday personal crystallization of its carrier used to construct and communicate identity. Whether we see the mobile phone as a revolution, evolution or nothing new under the sun is a matter of choosing a discourse. However, we should not “hype the phone” and get seduced by the utopian anarchism that mystifies rather than enlightens the meaning of the cell phone. In contrast, we should also beware the “hopelessly romantic technophobia” often noticeable in critical cultural studies. (McGuigan 2005, 46 & 55; Green, Harvey & Knox 2005, 817). In this paper, the mobile phone is considered as having paramount implications in the sociological configurations of modern cultures. Hype or not, the phone is not just a phone but it should be viewed as a unique emergent entity in techno-evolution and a lot more than the sum of its parts. As for techno-evolution, South Korea has a vastly developed media culture which is connected to the rapid economic growth and the resolute construction of information society. The Korean youth are clearly the most eager and versatile consumers of the new media. (See e.g. Webb 2007; Ubiquitous Network Societies 2005.) In short, my question here is “What is the mobile phone to young Koreans?” To answer it, I will introduce a few interesting points of studies on Korean mobiles and then present and discuss the observations and reflections of fifteen undergraduate students of communication at Seoul National University. In the observation rehearsal the students observed mobile phone use in a public place and reflected on their own use as well as the significance of mobile phone culture in Korea. Rather than explaining causal connections and assuring validity by measurement, I attempt to reflect on the system of meaning inherent in the mobile phone IADIS International Conference ICT, Society and Human Beings 2009 121