Urban experience takes an informational turn: mobile internet usage and the unevenness of geosocial activity

Abstract

Coinciding the widespread deployment of handheld information and communications technologies (ICT) there has been a rapid emergence of mobile Internet applications. Notably, these applications are designed to perform within operating systems that are not only Internet-connected but that are also location-aware and decoupled from any single point in space—design characteristics that enable instantaneous integration of users’ everyday ‘real-world’ experience with an array of Internet-based services. As a consequence, the experience of urban space can be mediated by digital information in ways that have not before been possible. In this article I explore the convergence of ongoing discussions about the digital divide, the nascent class of mobile ICT, and the urban communities that have been most adversely impacted by uneven technological landscapes. Building on this convergence, I argue that it is increasingly important to consider the impacts that pervasive mobile information have on the composition of everyday urban life.