Competing Discourses and Meaning Making in Talk about Romantic Partners’ Cell-Phone Contact with Non-Present Others

Focus groups were conducted with 51 college students to examine how participants engaged in meaning making about the presence and use of cell phones with non-present others while in the context of dating and spending time with romantic partners. Grounded in relational dialectics theory, qualitative analysis revealed two sets of competing discourses at play in college students’ talk about cell phones: discourses of community and romance and discourses of control and freedom. The interplay of these competing discourses illuminated participants’ struggles with being available to others while trying to provide attention to their dating partners. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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