Rich Ling: For the first time, we are all individually reachable any time and anywhere.

In this season’s last episode of “Hyllands Verden”, we switch to English. Thomas speaks with Richard (Rich) Ling, one of the world’s most influential researchers and theorists of the mobile phone. Back in the early 2000s, Ling, trained as a sociologist, introduced the concept of “micro-coordination”, and his work in the field is mainly focused on the implications of the mobile phone for social relations, ranging from texting to social media. Although Rich is fluent in Norwegian, having lived in Norway for many years, we decided to speak English in this podcast. Rich Ling is currently Professor of Communication at Nanyang University, Singapore. In this conversation with Thomas, he speaks about shopping lists and telephone directories, six degrees of separation (or less), refugees from North Korea, the recent proliferation of smartphones in Myanmar, why smartphones can strengthen close relationships, and more.