Mobile Communications: Re-negotiation of the Social Sphere

459 Pages·2005·3.435 MB·English

by  Rich Ling, Per E. Pedersen (auth.)

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Mobile
Communications
Re-negotiation of the Social Sphere
With 19 Figures
123
Rich Ling,PhD
Telenor R&D,Fornebu,Norway
Per E.Pedersen,PhD
Department ofInformation and Communication Technology,Agder University College,
Grimstad,Norway
Series Editors
Dan Diaper,PhD,MBCS
Senior Research Fellow,School ofComputingScience,Middlesex University,UK
Colston Sanger
Shottersley Research Limited,Little Shottersley,Farnham Lane
Haslemere,Surrey GU27 1HA,UK
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Preface
Mobile telephony has arrived on the scene.According to statistics of the
International Telecommunications Union,in the mid-1990s,less than one
person in 20 had a mobile telephone;as of2003,this had risen to on per-
son in five.In the mid-1990s,the GSM system was just being commercial-
ized,there were serious coverage and interoperability issues that were not
yet sorted out and handsets were only beginning to be something that did
not require a car to transport them.In the mid-1990s,if a teen owned a
mobile telephone it was likely an indicator ofan over-pampered rich kid
rather than today’s sense that it is a more or less essential part ofa teen’s
everyday identity kit.
Hence,in less than a decade,this device has established itself techni-
cally,commercially,socially and in the imagination of the people.It has
changed the way we think about communication,coordination and safety
and it has changed the way we behave in the public sphere.The mobile
telephone has become an element in our sense ofpublic and private space
and in the development of our social and psychological personas.It has
become an arena wherein the language is being played with, morphed
and extended.Finally,it is reaching out into ever-new areas ofcommerce
and interaction.
All ofthis is,ofcourse,interesting to social scientists.As brought out by
Woolgar later,this is,in some ways,a type of experiment writ large that
has engendered serious insight into the functioning of the social group
and the individual in society.
During the past 5 years,there has been a growing focus on scientific
research having to do with mobile communications. Scholars from
Europe, North America,Asia and countries such as Israel have investi-
gated the ways in which mobile communication interacts with social
dynamics. Collections include Perpetual Contact edited by Katz and
Aakhus (2002),the Wireless Worldbook edited by Brown et al.(2002),the
work by Nyíri (2003),and that ofFortunati et al.(2003).In addition,there
are starting to be some book-length analyses of mobile telephony.These
include the work ofKopomaa (2000) and the analysis ofthe social conse-
quences ofmobile telephony by Ling (2004).
The existing corpus of material examines mobile telephony from a
range ofperspectives.However,several dimensions ofthe work on mobile
telephony have not been as completely developed. In addition to the
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Mobile Communications
social issues of mobile telephony,there is a need to examine the psycho-
logical, linguistic, work-oriented and commercial aspects of mobile
telephony.In addition,there is a need to focus analysis on the non-voice
uses of mobile communication such as text messages and data transfer.
These are areas that receive focus,often for the first time,in this volume.
This book contributes to this discussion using the work of authors from
around the globe,including a particularly strong contribution from East
Asian scholars. The chapters represent the work of authors that come
from Europe,Asia,North America and the Middle East.
The book is organized into five parts: (1) an introductory part that
focuses on the placement of mobile communication in the broader con-
text of information and communication research, (2) the interplay
between the public and the private (often drawing on the Goffmanian
front stage/backstage metaphor) and (3) the psychological (4) the lin-
guistic dimensions of mobile telephony and finally (5) the commercial-
ization ofmobile communication applications.
In the first part ofthe book there are four chapters that stretch out the
canvas of research on mobile communication.These chapters look into
the way in which mobile communication fits into the broader issues of
communication and digitally mediated communication (Haddon and
Woolgar),an examination of how one might approach the interactions
between traditional mobile telephony and Wi-Fi (Sawhney),and finally a
piece by Katz and Sugiyama that moves away from the instrumental
examination ofmobile communication to examine its expressive dimen-
sions.
Part 2 is entitled Public and Private Spaces.In many respects this part
forms the center point of the book.It contains a series of chapters that
specifically look into how the mobile telephone is being adopted, used
(and sometimes resented) in various public spaces. The articles range
from analyses of how the mobile telephone is being used in open office
landscapes in Norway (Julsrud),to transport systems in the Philippines
(Paragas), to teens’ use of mobile telephony in Japan (Ito). Beyond the
geographic diversity of the situations described in the chapters,the con-
tributors examine the broader interaction between the social sphere,
space and mobile communication.Many ofthe contributions in this part
of the book underscore the tensions and turbulence associated with
introducing the device into pre-existing social situations. In effect, the
mobile telephone brings up for reconsideration previously taken for
granted assumptions as to when and where mediated communication
should take place.
Beyond the social dimensions of mobile telephony,the book takes up
several other less visited areas.These include the psychological,linguistic
and the commercial dimensions ofmobile telephony.Much ofthe analy-
sis ofmobile telephony has taken place in the context ofcommunication
departments in universities and in the research departments of telecom
vi
Preface
operators.This has perhaps resulted in a focus on the social dimension,
since it is often sociologists and their ilk that make up the personnel in
these institutions.Thus,there is a sense in which the analysis of mobile
telephony is only starting to be explored.There is clearly much work that
has been done in the areas of,for example,user gratifications (Leung and
Wei, 2000), computer-mediated communication (Grinter and Eldrige,
2001),information systems research (Manning,1996) and various aspects
of design (see,for example,Chuang et al.,2001).Hence the map is not
completely blank.However,there are significant areas that we are in the
process of filling in. It is in this spirit that we address this issue by
including three topic areas, those of the psychological, linguistic and
commercial/applications ofmobile communications.
It is clear that a psychological understanding of mobile telephony will
enhance our understanding of the phenomena: the degree to which
mobile telephony is a disturbing influence,the ways in which users can
develop psychological dependence,the links between loneliness and ritu-
alistic behavior and the ways in which social attribution are used in order
to make sense of mobile telephone use.In a similar way,there are clear
contributions to be made when examining the linguistic dimensions of
mobile communication. In many ways, the spontaneous nature of SMS
challenges our sense of the voice/written dichotomy.Thus,studying tex-
ting (and also language in instant messaging) provides insight into how
people are using and developing the language in real-life situations when
confronted by the need to form communications using new types of
mediation.Beyond the broader issues of language formulation,there is
also insight into which subgroups are at the forefront here.Finally,there
is the meta-language surrounding the ownership and marketing of
mobile communication devices that is open for consideration.
The marketing issues and the psychological dimensions are also drawn
on in the final part of the book,where adoption and commercial issues
are considered. If one considers mobile communication and service
adoption through the glasses of gratifications and domestication
research,one finds that gratifications obtained from mobile services go
far beyond the instrumentality offlexibility and availability.This finding
pushes the realm ofanalysis beyond the traditional issues associated with
adoption research that usually focuses instrumentality in the form ofuse-
fulness and ease of use. It is possible that even if services have been
designed to meet the functional needs ofthe subscriber,derived motiva-
tions of expressiveness are just as important as perceived usefulness to
the individual end-user’s adoption ofthe services.These findings are also
seen in the adoption and use ofvarious applications in a broad variety of
settings.
Hence we are starting to trace the broader impacts of mobile commu-
nication in a variety of areas.Beyond the simple adoption of the mobile
telephone,the devices impacts are starting to be seen in a broad variety of
vii
Mobile Communications
settings (as evidenced by the broad geographic distribution of the
authors represented here).In addition,the adoption and use of mobile
telephony is being studied by a broad selection ofdisciplines.
References
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Mobile Age.Springer,London.
Chuang,M.C.,Chang,C.C.and Hsu,S.H.(2001) Perceptual factors underlying user preferences
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Fortunati,L.,Katz,J.E.and Riccini,R.(eds) (2003) Mediating the Human Body: Technology,
Communication and Fashion.Lawrence Erlbaum,Mahwah,NJ.
Grinter,R.E.and Eldridge,M.(2001) Y do tngrs luv 2 txt msg? In Prinz,M.,Jarke,Y.,Schmidt,K.
and Wilf,V.(eds),Proceedings ofthe Seventh European Conference on Computer-Supported
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Katz,J.E.and Aakhus,M.(2002) Perpetual Contact:Mobile Communication,Private Talk,Public
Performance.Cambridge University Press,Cambridge.
Kopomaa, T. (2000) The City in Your Pocket: the Birth of the Mobile Information Society.
Gaudeamus,Helsinki.
Leung,L.and Wei,R.(2000) More than just talk on the move:Uses and gratifications ofthe cellu-
lar phone.J&MC Quarterly,77,308–320.
Ling,R.(2004) The Mobile Connection:the Cell Phone’s Impact on Society.Morgan Kaufmann,
San Francisco.
Manning, P.K. (1996) Information technology in the police context: the ‘sailor’ phone.
Information Systems Research,7,52–62.
Nyíri,K.(2003) Mobile communication:essays on cognition and community.In Communications
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viii
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank various people and institutions for their support
in the preparation ofthis book.First we wish to thank all the authors who
have agreed to go through the process of preparing manuscripts for this
volume.Their time,dedication and willingness to accept the endless e-
mails from the editors is,ofcourse,what made this book possible.We also
wish to thank Telenor Research and Development, Agder University
College and the Norwegian Research Council (in the form of their KIM
project) for supporting the work carried out here.
Rich Ling
Per Pedersen
ix