Abstract
Smartphones connect users to the Internet while on the move: these devices harness always-on wireless connectivity, powered by batteries in need of regular charging. Supporting the mobile communication of smartphones is the infrastructure of wireless connectivity and the global Internet itself. Both systems require not-insignificant amounts of electricity. Emerging social practices of using and charging smartphones in transit offer an entry point to theorizing energy needs surrounding information-communication technologies (ICTs) beyond home and workspaces, in public and in motion. An ethnographic travel narrative is presented, detailing charging practices in train stations in the Northeast United States, on trains, and the energy demand of a nearby data center. This narrative provides an overview of the merged infrastructures that facilitate new social practices and create new forms of energy demand.
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Notes
- 1.
The release of the Apple iPhone in 2007 was widely seen to herald the widespread adoption of smartphones and the concurrent need for telecommunications and mobile communication providers to offer the high-speed wireless, mobile Internet service smartphones rely on (Arthur 2012). The digital infrastructures facilitating mobile connectivity, and the social practices resulting from this connectivity—as well as the energy demand stemming from the practices—are consequently all very recent, less than a decade old.
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Wiig, A. (2018). Demanding Connectivity, Demanding Charging: The Co-production of Mobile Communication Between Electrical and Digital Infrastructures. In: Hui, A., Day, R., Walker, G. (eds) Demanding Energy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61991-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61991-0_2
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