Loneliness And Social Integration:the Mobile Phone Use Of New-generation Migrant Workers

The present study focus on the loneliness in city life and mobile phone use through in-depth interviews of 21 new-generation of migrant workers. This paper focus on the emotional associations between mobile phone and new-generation of migrant workers using Use and Gratification frame and the social network analytic method. Proceeding from family loneliness, romantic loneliness and social loneliness, this article discusses the way the mobile phone used as a means of keeping family, friends and romantic relationships as well as the interaction within portable world and personal loneliness.We find out that besides a communication tool, mobile phone indeed serves for emotional comfort. (1)Mobile phone is a dialectic about control and freedom. They use mobile phone to keep contact family, as well as other ways of mobile use to keep distance and pursue free urban life, consequently mobile phone merely partly relieve the family loneliness.(2)Mobile phone expands the space of urban social interaction and brings about new kind of romantic relationships. With modern concept of love and marriage, both sides involved choose different communication means within mobile phone according to cost, and level of intimacy etc. Only by perpetual contact and appropriate contact, can both sides improve the satisfaction of the relationship, thus alleviating romantic relationships.(3) Social distance still exists in the interaction with urban residents and little emotional support and comfort can be obtained. In contrast, geographical relationship and occupational relations count for new-generation of migrant workers. Mobile phone helps them get social connection and emotional support by its microcoordination as well as hypercoordination function in individual and group interaction. (4) Mobile phone reliance and para-social interaction are also found among the new-generation of migrant workers, occupied too much time for interpersonal interaction, but such mobile phone reliance also creats new interpersonal communication opportunity and complements social interaction in reality.