Recent studies show that, in the process of becoming part of our lives, technological innovations, such as computers and the Internet, have produced important psychological transformations. Little is known, however, about the psychological impacts of another new technology: mobile telecommunication. The results of an exploratory investigation into the use of cell phones by young inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro suggest that mobile telephony is also generating psychological changes. In addition, they indicate that such changes are consistent with the new subjective organization - fluid and ever-changing - described by several analysts of the present era. In the case of these youngsters, the most important changes detected are related to: their increased autonomy, freedom and privacy; the increased intimacy that characterizes many of their relationships; the emergence of new forms of interpersonal control; their increased sense of security and the feeling of never being alone.
technological innovations; cell phones; youngsters; psychological impacts