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3 - Israel: chutzpah and chatter in the Holy Land

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Amit Schejter
Affiliation:
Communication department, Tel Aviv University
Akiba Cohen
Affiliation:
Chair of the Department of Communication, Tel Aviv University
James E. Katz
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Mark Aakhus
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
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Summary

On a summer evening in 1999, a fully loaded bus traveling from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem had just climbed to one of the highest points overlooking the city, ten minutes from its final destination. A young lady sitting a few seats behind the driver slipped her mobile phone from her purse, dialed a number, and put the phone to her ear. To the person on the other end of the line she said: “Okay, we've just passed Mevasseret [a suburb of Jerusalem], so we'll arrive in about ten minutes. Start moving and pick me up across from the Convention Center.” The bus driver, who had been busy maneuvering the complicated turns, suddenly looked up in his rear-view mirror and shouted: “No, lady, there's no stop there anymore!”

It seems every tourist visiting Israel in recent years comments on the omnipresence of mobile phones. The above anecdote is a wonderful example typifying not only the sheer numbers but also the particular nature of mobile telephone usage in Israel. In this chapter, we describe as well as seek to understand the unprecedented growth of mobile phone ownership and use in Israel. We also point out some unique characteristics of this medium, which seem to suit the Israeli culture and mentality so well, and hence make it ubiquitous.

Israelis spend impressive amounts of time talking on mobile phones.

Type
Chapter
Information
Perpetual Contact
Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance
, pp. 30 - 41
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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References

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Zrahiya, Zvi. (1999). “It's Official: Cellphones Outnumber Landlines.” Ha'aretz (Tel Aviv), December 10 (on-line edition)

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