Weaving Smartphones Into Mother–Infant Interaction: Digital Disruptions or Participatory Possibilities?

ABSTRACT Intense public scrutiny of mothering practices continues to perpetuate unhelpful narratives of maternal smartphone use as ‘risky’ and ‘harmful’, positioning mothers to experience guilt and judgement around their smartphone use. Yet despite this, the ubiquity of digital device ownership means mothers are increasingly using smartphones around their infants (birth–12 months). This article presents a single case analysis of a video‐recorded interactional episode between a mother at home with her 3‐month old infant and her smartphone. Fine‐grained analysis shows how mother and infant co‐construct and manage active participation in ‘doing phone use’ while attending to and responding to one another. Attentional and maternal responsivity during smartphone use predominantly has been studied using larger scale, quantitative research designs using social experiments, surveys, self‐reports and interviews. These methods preclude capacity for detailed contextual understandings of what is occurring when mothers use smartphones around their infants in their everyday lives. This study uses visual ethnographic methods of video‐recorded observations of mother‐infant interactions at home during their everyday routines and activities. Using the methodologies of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (EMCA), we illustrate how a mother and her 3‐month old infant accomplish moments of mutual attention in the presence of a smartphone. We also illustrate how attention and responsivity is interactionally organised and how the mother displays responsivity even when digital devices are present. Using a qualitative methodological approach offers a reframing that considers the participatory possibilities of maternal smartphone use around infants.