Tricks, Lies, and Mobile Phones: ‘Phone Friend’ Stories in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Since their arrival in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2007, mobile phones have become objects of broad moral concern, particularly around issues of female social and physical mobility. I explore these concerns through a discussion of stories about ‘phone friends’ – frequently unknown callers who initiate long-term correspondence and exchange relationships via mobile. I argue that these stories, which resemble the long-established genre of giaman (trickster) folktales, condense and make explicit one of the central problems generated by mobile phone use in PNG: that of how to maintain morally appropriate forms of exchange in a context where spatiotemporal relations have been radically distorted and in which the identity of participants can be easily hidden. The appeal of phone friend stories, I suggest, lies not so much in their critique of social climbing or female mobility, but in their consideration of the problem of mediation.

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