Telefonerandets smarta praktiker

Abstract

This article focus on smart habits established as the telephone became a mundane technology in Finland during the first part of the 20th century. Smartness is defined as tactical practices based on experience, knowledge, and situated cultural rationale. The article argues that new habits contained a degree of smartness as the telephone was used to protect one’s own or a common interest and to solve mutual problems. Long gossiping conversations confirmed social ties. One learned how to manage the delicate boundary between private and public conversations, as well as to expose eavesdroppers and to speak in an enigmatic, yet comprehensible way. Smart practices encompass tactical creativity based on situated, cultural rationale.