Abstract
In Haunting Hands_, Cumiskey and Hjorth examine mobile media’s role in processing loss. They argue that mobile media have created new sites of interaction and negotiation between the bereaved, the deceased, and the deceased’s (digital) remains, which have yet to be explored in the literature. Cumiskey and Hjorth develop this argument by drawing from cross-cultural empirical data and applying a social-constructivist approach to “interpret the culturally specific dimensions of loss and mobile media use” (p. 18). They situate this approach in response to a lack of non-Eurocentric narratives on loss.
Cumiskey and Hjorth develop their argument in two sections. In Section I, Chapters 3–5, they present findings from participant-led interviews to examine how mobile media challenge traditional understandings and expressions of grief. They argue that the intimate copresence afforded by mobile media refigures understandings of grief as a private experience. Consequently, they suggest it is necessary to renegotiate the social norms for publicly expressing grief, offering condolences, and memorializing death. Further, they suggest that mobile media complicate how the bereaved manage emotions over time, particularly in cultures not focused on getting over a loss.
In Section II, Chapters 6–8, Cumiskey and Hjorth examine the haunting presence and continuity that mobile media afford in the wake of loss; they also interrogate how cultural norms shape responses to loss. In doing so, they present a case study of a mass casualty to suggest that both documentations of death and the deceased’s mobile device(s) can become dwelling places for the bereaved in their attempts to create a continued connection with the deceased’s digital presence. They also flesh out the implications of a continued connection, suggesting that while Western cultures often stigmatize connections with the dead, other cultures accept after-death connections as part of the norm. They conclude by suggesting that individuals use mobile media to transcend physical and spatial boundaries to form connections with both the living and dead during a time of loss.
Haunting Hands_ boasts two major strengths. The authors offer rich examples from interviews, which facilitate the reader’s understanding of how mobile media shape individual experiences of loss. Additionally, the authors persistently circle back to evaluate the success of their argument, which allows readers to trace the argument in its various iterations.
However, Haunting Hands_ also demonstrates one notable weakness. The majority of the book presents individual interviews, but Chapter 6 provides a case study of a mass casualty disaster. While the case study provides an interesting takeaway regarding the potential of mobile media to serve as witness to death, it seems out of place in the context of an argument emphasizing individual experiences of loss.
Nevertheless, this one shortcoming is eclipsed by the thought-provoking meditation that the book offers on the role of mobile media in processing loss. Beyond addressing gaps in the literature about loss, Haunting Hands_ will be useful to those interested in how mobile media penetrate the quotidian and acquire meaning as individuals embed aspects of their identity both within them and through their use.