Paper short abstract:

Amidst the "Israel-Hamas" war outbreak, smartphone documentation raised questions about the adaptive nature of this behavior. Through Media Witnessing and phenomenology, Smartphone documentation is suggested as a survival mechanism, protecting the body-mind from adversity during a traumatic event.

Paper long abstract:

Amidst the "Israel-Hamas" war outbreak on November 7, 2023, thousands of individuals utilized mobile phones to document and share their experiences of fleeing, hiding, and facing life-threatening situations on social media, prompting speculation about their motivations, as well as safety concerns.

Traditionally, trauma literature examines physical responses like "fight-flight-freeze" as survival mechanisms, emphasizing the organism's focus and attention on overcoming threats. While mobile phone use is often perceived as hazardous in attention-requiring situations such as driving, smartphone documentation in traumatic events of the "Israel-Hamas" war outbreak, introduces a novel survival response not thoroughly explored in psychological and media literature, raising questions about its adaptive value in the digital age.

Through the lens of Media Witnessing, smartphone technology is proposed to have become an intrinsic part of the traumatic experience and terminology. Integrated with phenomenological methodology, it is suggested that human survival during crises involves utilizing physical, emotional, and technological resources. Thus, mobile phone documentation, while seemingly ineffective to outsiders, may offer a survival advantage in the face of adversity, as a means to protect both body and mind from trauma, in the smartphone era.

This presentation will feature examples illustrating how smartphones act as extensions of injured or fleeing bodies, compensating for physical limitations, and as tools for sense-making and empowerment. However, conventional smartphone use for direct calls for help will not be explored in this context.