## Introduction to the Social Transformations from the Mobile Internet Special Issue  
**[PERSON]**  
University of Maryland, 1102 Holzapfel Hall, College Park, MD 20853, USA;  
E-Mail: [EMAIL_ADDRESS]  
_Received: 18 May 2012 / Accepted: 21 May 2012 / Published: 23 May 2012_  
**Abstract:** The social transformations brought about by the mobile internet are extensive. In discussing the broad range of these transformations--positioned as a shift from personal computing to pervasive computing--this editorial elaborates on the key contributions addressed by the articles in this special issue of _Future Internet_. These articles touch on topics such as the digital divide, the role of the mobile internet in revolutions like the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street movement, the development of site-specific and context-aware news, the incorporation of the internet into existing technologies like the automobile, and the utilization of the mobile internet to transform everyday spaces into game spaces. **Keywords:** mobile internet; pervasive computing; digital divide; augmented reality; Arab Spring; news; context-aware computing; automobile; pervasive games; hybrid reality  
A major shift happened in 2009 when, for the first time, people globally were using their mobile devices more for data transfer than they were for voice communication [1]. Subsequently, the devices that were once primarily used for making phone calls are now being used in ways that far exceed their original design. With the ability to access the internet on the go with our mobile devices, we have officially moved beyond a personal computing paradigm and into a pervasive computing paradigm. This move into pervasive computing culture with the rise of the mobile internet is indeed a global phenomenon. At the end of 2011, there were 5.9 billion mobile phone subscribers, equaling roughly 87% of the world's population who had and used a mobile device [2]. The mobile internet has thus interceded into the global problem of the \"digital divide\" by providing access to areas that do not have the infrastructure and wealth to support hardwired connections to the internet as used in the desktop model of computing. The costs involved in providing mobile internet access is dramatically less in developing countries that previously did not have the infrastructure established upon which the backbone of the internet would be founded (largely through pre-established fixed-line telecommunications infrastructure) [3]. In considering the range of topics that are of immediate concern when studying the rise of mobile internet culture, the issue of the digital divide is one that resides at the forefront. Any study that begins addressing this issue immediately faces an obvious fact: the ideal of mobile devices bridging the digital divide because of increased access is by no means a clear-cut issue. As people have been arguing for some time, from the likes of [PERSON] [4] to [PERSON] [5], simply providing access to these technologies does not solve the issue of the digital divide. The problem instead bleeds across issues such as economics, class, the creation of relevant content, technological literacy, pedagogical training and innovations in education, and the development of meaningful communities that connect with each other in embodied ways through these technologies. The first article for this special issue on \"Social Transformations from the Mobile Internet\" takes up this dilemma, looking at another important question about the role of mobile technology in the digital divide: does the low-cost nature of the mobile internet actually end up providing lower-quality access to low-income teens in the United States while simultaneously costing them more in the long run? In their article, \"Mobile Phones Bridging the Digital Divide for Teens in the US?\", [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] provide an insightful reading of a recent Pew Internet study that they were involved in producing.