The Book Prize Index

New Tech, New Ties

Rich Ling

"The message of this book is simple: the mobile phone strengthens social bonds among family and friends. In New Tech, New Ties, Rich Ling examines how the mobile telephone affects both kinds of interactions - those mediated by mobile communication and those that are face to face. Ling finds that through the use of various social rituals the mobile telephone strengthens social ties within the circle of friends and family - sometimes at the expense of interaction with those who are physically present - and creates what he calls "bounded solidarity.""--Jacket.

TechnologyTechnology · medium confidenceTechnology81 signalsLlm Classifier: Technology -> TechnologyOpen Library: Communication and culture -> Society & CultureKeyword Classifier: Society & Culture -> Society & CultureFamily, Childhood & AdoptionClass, Poverty & Inequality

Award History

0 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
PROSE Award for Anthropology and Sociology2008Honorable mentionOfficial source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    The mobile telephone strengthens social bonds among family and friends via social rituals, sometimes reducing face-to-face interaction, and thereby creates “bounded solidarity.”

    Model confidence 78%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    55 / 100 academic

    Trade / academic crossover

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 70%.