THE VIRTUALIZATION OF URBAN YOUNG PEOPLE'S MOBILITY PRACTICES: A TIME‐GEOGRAPHIC TYPOLOGY

A time‐geographic approach, including time–space diaries and in‐depth interviews, is used to investigate the daily use and implications of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among a group of Swedish urban youth. We identify individual variations and nuances in ICT‐based practices in our respondents' social and spatial contexts. Using individual cases and detailed time‐geographic trajectories, we demonstrate how daily communicative actions – physical and virtual – are combined and integrated. From this we identify four ideal types of mobility practices: (i) home‐oriented, heavy Internet users; (ii) physically mobile, heavy mobile phone users; (iii) physically mobile, heavy Internet and mobile phone users; and (iv) home‐oriented, rarely mobile people (virtually and physically).