‘I can’t live without my mobile phone'

Considering the context of consumption, the centrality of communication and its materiality in the contemporary world, the author, through ethnographic research, seeks to analyse the widespread use of mobile phones by children as another tool that seems to reinforce the construction of networks of basic relationships for daily survival, especially in the mediation of family relationships or between parents and children. This work was carried out using an interdisciplinary approach: cultural anthropology/material culture; communication technologies and education. The author followed the daily lives of eleven children, aged between 9 and 12, in their social circle, belonging to middle-class families with similar socio-cultural profiles, for a period of thirteen months. The author seeks to highlight how consumer practices related to mobile phones have influenced these children in the social circle to which they belong, and how these communication processes have given these children visibility for the social construction of their autonomy. This book is aimed at parents, teachers, educators, marketing professionals and communication technology professionals.