India, March 9 -- Why did you choose the smartphone as your central lens for decoding post-2010s India?

Social media resides within the smartphone and while it plays an instrumental role without question, the power that wielding a phone accords the user adds a dimension that is critical. The phone embodies power and individual agency. It helps people experience themselves as individuals and makes the idea of personal agency granular and real. It is experienced in thousands of micro decisions the user makes, in the gestures of control that indicate what is liked, summoned or dismissed. The phone and all that lies within it helped create the unique relationship of every individual with the outside world -- something that was unimaginable e...