Mediated Intimacy:the Influence And Construction Of Smartphones On Contemporary Urban Family Relationship ——A Qualitative Study Of Middle Class Families In Kunming

As the traditional research paradigm of communication increasingly shows its constraints in the ever-changing technological development and diverse and complicated human-computer interaction communication,the research on media materiality and technology has been valued again.The interaction among media,human and society turned into an important access to communication research.From the perspective of mediatization theory,this paper attempts to take advantage of such access to observe how smartphones are involved and embedded in the scenarios of contemporary urban family life,and how smartphones affect the interaction and communication of family members and the organization and coordination of family life,so as to outline the family relationship that is “mediated” by smartphones,and provide a reference contact map for the arrival of the Io E（Internet of Everything）era with 5G technology.It is found from the study that when technology is inserted,in a similar manner to a blood vessel into every nook of the city,the smartphone,with digitalization and networking as its technical logic,has also become one of the important participants and builders of contemporary urban family life.Being involved and embedded in scenarios of contemporary urban family life,smartphones not only change the media use habits and lifestyle of family members,but also change the mode of interaction between family members and the way of emotional expression,making it become an important part of the structural conditions of family life.In the process of relationship connection,the physical properties of smartphones enable them to provide online and offline interactive time and space for connected individuals through the separation and reorganization of time and space,and generate dialogue and communication between the digital body and the real mind.Meanwhile,the separation between the online and offline worlds is established with one “small screen” as the boundary.Smartphones not only provide individuals with a connection to the vast online wireless world,but also set up an invisible separation between each online individual and other offline individuals.In the family relationship mainly characterized by intimacy,this separation gives rise to a communication state in which family members are both connected and separated,thereby constructing a “mediated intimacy” relationship.The essence of this relationship is the process in which family members use smartphones to control the boundary of the elastic structure of individuality and family intimacy in the interaction and communication,and gradually separate themselves from the traditional family culture and get involved in new family culture,thus constructing the family relationship.It is also a process in which family members re-recognize the relationship between the individual and the family in the game between tradition and modernity.Moreover,the operating mechanism of the mediated society also incorporates the contemporary urban family into other interactive processes of social operation,forming a complex and diverse relationship of power flow through flexible connection and interaction with other social systems.