Mobile Selves: Gender, ethnicity and mobile phones in the everyday lives of young Pakistani-British women and men

This paper focuses on mobile phone use by a young minority ethnic group as a medium through which to explore diversity and technology use in everyday life. Recent research with young people has shown that mobile phones are instrumentally, socially and emotionally important but few have problematized the homogeneous concept of 'youth'. This paper argues for increased recognition of the intersections of social categories such as youth, gender and ethnicity with technologies, specifically mobile phones, in order to understand complexity of use. Drawing on new empirical, qualitative data from an urban area in the North East of England we explore the focus group narratives of young Pakistani-British Muslim women and men focusing on the notion of 'shifting' gendered and cultural identities and social practices, developed and reworked in relation to the use of mobile phones. We look at the gendered dynamics of mobile use, including gender talk and text, and ask whether the young women and men experience mobiles differently in everyday life. We also explore the ways in which mobiles are used to create 'space of one's own' and the gendered dynamics of remaining connected, especially to key peer groups. The paper concludes with the assertion that in order to fully explore the mutability of youth cultures across space and time, we need to develop a more dynamic concept of 'mobile selves' by exploring the place and meaning of technologies such as mobile phones in the rich tapestries of young people's lives.     

The Role of Mobile Phones in Family Communication

Whilst there is a wealth of research into family communication and family relationships, there is little information about whether (and if so how) mobile phones have impacted on these processes. The authors’ study involved individual semi‐structured interviews with 60 families, including parents/carers and young people aged 11–17, to investigate this further. The interviews explored how mobile phones are used in family communication; participants’ views about the benefits and disadvantages of mobile phone use; and issues around safety, surveillance and privacy. The findings show that young people and parents see mobiles as a key way for families to keep in touch, and to monitor and ensure young people’s safety. However, some participants felt there was a downside to this, in relation to some young people either withdrawing into their own social worlds, or having a false feeling of security as a result of having a mobile. Gender differences in views and usage were also found. The paper concludes with some general comments about the role of mobile phones in family life.     

Media use in long-distance friendships

New media such as email and mobile phones have made it easier to maintain relationships over distances. The present paper examines which media people use to maintain long-distance friendships. The main focus lies on the comparison of email and phone. Media choice theories like media richness theory assume that media can be classified according to their richness, and that people choose the medium which fits best to the affordances of a specific task. The phone as richer medium should be preferred over email in the case of maintenance of long-distance friendships because it is easier to express emotions and to give immediate feedback via phone than via email. Email is an asynchronous medium and communication via email is therefore independent of space and time. Therefore, it can also be argued that email is preferred over the phone because it makes it easier to communicate across different work schedules or even time-zones. In two studies (Study 1 conducted in the Netherlands, Study 2 conducted in Germany) media use in long-distance friendships was measured. Across both studies, email was the most frequently used medium. In Study 1, an interesting asymmetric influence of closeness of the friendship emerged. The closer the friendship, the more emails were written in total, but the less the relative use of email. Instead, the percentage of phone calls increased. Study 2 aimed to replicate and explain this finding and assessed also the content of the phone call or emails. Whereas the intimateness of the emails did not change with increased closeness of the friendship, the intimateness of the phone calls increased with increasing closeness of the friendship. This result indicates that people use email primarily for staying in touch, whereas important personal matters are still discussed on the phone.     

PLAYING WITH FIRE: On the domestication of the mobile phone among Palestinian teenage girls in Israel

This paper offers an analysis of mobile phone practices among Palestinian Israeli teenage girls, framed within a discussion about the domestication of communication technologies, women and the telephone, and Palestinian teenage girls in Israel. The paper constructs a detailed account of mobile phone use among Palestinian Israeli girls who, at the time of the fieldwork (2003-2006), used mobile phones given to them by their illicit boyfriends, unbeknownst to their parents. The analysis explores the ways in which the phone use dialectically reaffirmed and challenged intergenerational and cross-gender relationships; and reflects on the notion of 'domestication' as a framework for analysing mobile communication media.     

Mobile (in)security? Exploring the realities of mobile phone use in conflict areas

Across disciplines, scholars extol the revolutionary potential of mobile technologies in developing nations. Mobile phones in particular may facilitate economic and social development. However, our understanding of mobile phone’s interaction with a developing country’s society is limited by two factors: first, development is often accompanied by social and political conflict; and second, scholars often provide a broad overview on the use of these technologies. We address these limitations through the use of data collected from ethnographic interviews conducted in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We highlight the everyday use of mobile technologies in developing nations that experience political conflict. We conclude that while mobile technologies have some potential of mitigating social inequality, political conflict, and safety concerns, these opportunities for meaningful use are hampered by limitations associated with daily life in developing countries such as irregular access to electricity and network coverage boundaries.     

In good company: risk, security and choice in young people's drug decisions

This article draws on original empirical research with young people to question the degree to which ‘individualisation of risk’, as developed in the work of Beck and Giddens, adequately explains the risks young people bear and take. It draws on alternative understandings and critiques of ‘risk’ not to refute the notion of the reflexive individual upon which ‘individualisation of risk’ is based but to re‐read that reflexivity in a more hermeneutic way. It explores specific risk‐laden moments – young people's drug use decisions – in their natural social and cultural context of the friendship group. Studying these decisions in context, it suggests, reveals the meaning of ‘risk’ to be not given, but constructed through group discussion, disagreement and consensus and decisions taken to be rooted in emotional relations of trust, mutual accountability and common security. The article concludes that ‘the individualisation of risk’ fails to take adequate account of the significance of intersubjectivity in risk‐decisions. It argues also that addressing the theoretical overemphasis on the individual bearer of risk requires not only further empirical testing of the theory but appropriate methodological reflection.     

The blessings and burdens of communication: cell phones in Jamaican transnational social fields

Abstract Although much mention has been made of the importance of ICTs for transnational migrants, we know relatively little about how these technologies affect or change everyday transnational communications. Tracing the shift from community phone boxes to individually owned mobile (cell) phones in rural Jamaica, in this article I focus on the integration of mobile phones in Jamaican transnational communication. Equipped with a mobile phone, rural Jamaicans no longer rely on collect phone calls and expensive calling cards to initiate the connections between their friends and relatives living abroad. For many Jamaicans without access to a regular or reliable phone service prior to 2001, the mobile phone is viewed as an unadulterated blessing, transforming the role of transnational communication from an intermittent event to a part of daily life. For others, however, the mobile phone remains an object of ambivalence, bringing unforeseen burdens and obligations.     

Love and hooking up in the new millennium: communication technology and relationships among urban African American and Puerto Rican young adults

Communication technology is a central feature of young people's lives, but its role in romantic and sexual relationships has not been thoroughly examined. This article describes how young adults use communication technology for partnering across relationship stages (formation, maintenance, and dissolution) and types (serious/casual), and proposes implications of usage in relationships. This study analyzed qualitative data from a five-week, prospective, coital diary method with related debriefing interviews (N = 70) of African American and Puerto Rican men and women aged 18 to 25 years in Hartford and Philadelphia. Cell phones, including calls, text messaging, and mobile Internet, were the most common forms of communication technology used for partnering goals. Participants reported using cell phones to pursue partnering goals across all relationship stages, including formation (meeting, screening, and getting to know new partners), maintaining existing relationships, and breaking up. Cell phone uses depended on the type of relationship (serious/casual) and the participants' intentions and desires. Results indicated that cell phones are an important element of communication among young adults in romantic and sexual relationships. Specific features of cell phone communication shape the process and context of partnering. Future research should explore emerging communication technologies and implications for psychosocial development, dating violence, and sexual behavior.     

Parent–child relationships,friendship networks,and developmental outcomes of economically disadvantaged youth in Hong Kong

This research investigates factors conducive to the thriving of economically disadvantaged young people in Hong Kong. In particular, we examine ways in which the parent–child relationship and friendship networks, as the principal sources of support during the transition from childhood to adulthood, influence the developmental outcomes of this group of young people with regard to their mental health, positive identity, behavioral adjustment, resilience and academic achievement. Based on a survey of 479 young people recruited from community-based youth-service centers located in different districts of Hong Kong, the results of the present research support the hypotheses that parent–child relationships and friendship networks have significant positive effects on youth development among low-income young people. Our results also show that, when compared with friendship networks, the parent–child relationship is a stronger predictor of youth development, that is, a stronger parent–child relationship tends to correspond to a better developmental outcome. Moreover, our research provides empirical evidence regarding the influence that parents can have on shaping the quality of young people's friendship networks. The implications of our findings, both for future research and for service delivery to promote the well-being of economically disadvantaged young people, are discussed.     

Innovativeness,personal initiative,news affinity and news utility as predictors of the use of mobile phones as news devices

This study examines the predictors of the use of mobile phones as news devices and tests different roles of innovativeness and personal initiative in second-level adoption, which refers to the acceptance of a distinctive function serving a communication purpose other than that for which a technology device was originally designed. Taking the use of mobile phones to access news as a case of second-level adoption, findings indicated that personal initiative was a stronger predictor of mobile phone use than innovativeness, but the effect of innovativeness on mobile phone use moderated by personal initiative was not confirmed. News affinity was a significant predictor of the frequency and amount of time mobile phones were used as news devices, while news utility was a weak predictor of the frequency of mobile phone use. The findings partly confirmed the different roles of innovativeness and personal initiative in the context of second-level adoption.     

The advanced use of mobile phones in five European countries

The paper explores the advanced users of mobile phones in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the UK (EU5 countries) and aims to clarify the social meaning of advanced use. The mobile phone is seen as a strategic tool of social labour, whose capabilities are exploited to a different extent in the five studied countries. The analysis is based on a cross‐national survey data collected in 2009 (N = 7,255). First, the results show that there are substantial differences in the advanced use of mobile phone and its predictors in Europe. Generally, only about one third of the studied mobile features are exploited. British and French people are the most advanced users, followed by German, Spanish and Italians. While Italians have stuck to early developed mobile phone features, Britons especially have continued to adopt the newer properties of the mobile phone. Second, the article shows that owing to the extensive under‐utilization of its features, the mobile phone as a tool of social labour is efficiently exploited by only a small number of people. They, however, constitute technological vanguards that make use of the diverse features in different countries. This limited use of advanced features results in the new patterns of social stratification.     

Defining the mobile-digital situation within perpetual telecopresence: An exploratory study of the impact of mobile phones on the life-world

ABSTRACT

This study explores the impact of mobile phone use on the structure of the life-world and the process of defining the situation. The findings from data collected from five focus groups (N = 38) and 26 in-depth interviews (N = 28) suggest that, as mobile phones become normalized within personal relationships, people develop a sense of perpetual telecopresence with their significant others (i.e., best friends, romantic partners, close family members). Additionally, since the mobile-digital situation is dislocated, very little empirical information is available for defining the situation; consequently, definitions of the mobile-digital situation are based upon imagined-empirical information relative to the relational identities of the interlocutors. Moreover, cognitive involvement becomes a central dynamic for any definitions of the mobile-digital situation.     

Love and Hooking Up in the New Millennium: Communication Technology and Relationships among Urban African American and Puerto Rican Young Adults

Communication technology is a central feature of young people's lives, but its role in romantic and sexual relationships has not been thoroughly examined. This article describes how young adults use communication technology for partnering across relationship stages (formation, maintenance, and dissolution) and types (serious/casual), and proposes implications of usage in relationships. This study analyzed qualitative data from a five-week, prospective, coital diary method with related debriefing interviews (N = 70) of African American and Puerto Rican men and women aged 18 to 25 years in Hartford and Philadelphia. Cell phones, including calls, text messaging, and mobile Internet, were the most common forms of communication technology used for partnering goals. Participants reported using cell phones to pursue partnering goals across all relationship stages, including formation (meeting, screening, and getting to know new partners), maintaining existing relationships, and breaking up. Cell phone uses depended on the type of relationship (serious/casual) and the participants' intentions and desires. Results indicated that cell phones are an important element of communication among young adults in romantic and sexual relationships. Specific features of cell phone communication shape the process and context of partnering. Future research should explore emerging communication technologies and implications for psychosocial development, dating violence, and sexual behavior.     

Ergonomic recommendations when texting on mobile phones

The aim of this report was to give ergonomic recommendations in order to prevent musculoskeletal symptoms/disorders among young people due to intensive texting on mobile phones. In a study of 56 Swedish young adults (19-25 years, 41 with musculoskeletal symptoms in neck and/or upper extremities and 15 without symptoms) registration of thumb movements with electrogoniometry, muscle activity with electromyography and observation of texting technique were conducted during texting on mobile phones. The results showed differences in physical load between the group with musculoskeletal symptoms and the group without symptoms. There were also found differences in muscle activity and kinematics between different texting techniques. These differences could not be explained by the asymptomatic group having symptoms but may be a possible contribution to their symptoms. According to these results it can be recommended to support the forearms, to use both thumbs, to avoid sitting with the head bent forward and to avoid texting with high velocity in order to prevent musculoskeletal disorders when using mobile phones for texting.     

EFFECTIVE USE OF MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS IN E-GOVERNMENT: How do we reach the tipping point?

This paper investigates what is needed to make the mobile phone a more effective tool for the interaction between government and governed. Recent studies have shown that a significant proportion of the UK population have no intention of accessing the Internet; however, it is reported that there are more web-enabled mobile phones than there are PCs in the UK. Mobile phones may thus offer the most viable electronic channel through which to encourage large-scale take-up of online public services. Although people have integrated mobile phones into their everyday lives, we argue that unless there is a substantial change in social practices the much heralded 'm-government' will take a significant amount of time to become a reality. Despite these ongoing challenges, mobile technologies offer huge potential to represent mainstream government/citizen interaction. The paper will draw upon case studies of best practice from around the world to investigate the emerging ways in which large-scale usage of this type of government/citizen interaction can be achieved.     

Connecting People – Renewing Power Relations? A Research Review on the Use of Mobile Phones

The paper discusses how the power perspective has been considered and discussed in qualitative social studies on the use of mobile phones in practices at home, work and public places. Some themes relevant from the aspect of power negotiations were extrapolated from the reviewed literature: constant availability at home and work, and the mobile phone as a public status symbol in respect to its design and use in space, time, and social surroundings. The review also aims to show how social variables affecting the adoption and use of the mobile phone have so far been analyzed in research. The writers conclude that mobile phones have been interpreted to reproduce and renew traditional power hierarchies. Still, more nuanced research is needed to understand the micro‐mechanisms of power in the socio‐cultural contexts of the use of mobile phones.     

Mobile Phone Use in Romantic Relationships

ABSTRACT

There is a growing body of research regarding the role of mobile phones in romantic couple communication processes. The purpose of this review is to highlight the state of the literature in this area in terms of positive and negative aspects of the constant contact afforded by mobile phones. We use symbolic interactionism to discuss ways in which mobile phones provide a vehicle of symbol-creating interaction when actors attach and glean meanings from interactions via mobile phones. Text and phone conversations tend to be stripped of many cues often used to decipher meaning in face-to-face interactions. Thus, symbolically, meaning derived from mobile phone use may consist of more than the recordable contents of the conversations. Implications for research are discussed.     

Substance misuse amongst young people in non‐school settings: challenges to practitioners and policy makers

Over the past two decades the levels of substance misuse amongst children and young people have increased at a global level generally and within the UK in particular. Some school aged young people are considered to be at an increased risk to substance misuse, particularly those outside mainstream school. However, the literature on substance use by these young people remains comparatively limited. This paper explores this issue through an investigation of cannabis use trends amongst the High Risk Booster Sample of the Belfast Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study of adolescent substance use. It focuses upon the cannabis use patterns of young people excluded from school and those attending Emotional and Behavioural Difficulty units from the age of 11–16 years, groups who are historically categorised as vulnerable to substance misuse. The experience of these young people provides evidence to highlight the contemporary challenges facing policy makers and practitioners when addressing substance use and misuse use amongst these young people. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“人机交往”还是“人际交往”读屏时代青少年的同伴互动

“读屏”成为了越来越多青少年的“常规动作”和“生动表情”,青少年的同伴关系在种种屏幕面前也得以再造。电视屏幕为青少年展示了成人的后台景象,使青少年学习到许多人际交往模式以及相应的价值观念、行为方式。在网络虚拟世界中,青少年按照新的规则展开知识的传播、情感的交流、思想的撞击。学习如何同他人交往,并将这些交往技巧迁移到真实的社会情境中。手机作为“流动的现代性”的表征之一,重新结构着青少年的人际交往模式和社会关系网络。然而,青少年的社会需要不可能仅仅从抽象的“人机关系”中得到满足,“人机”关系自然不可能彻底取代“人际”关系。     

(Im)materiality, virtual reality and interaction: grounding the 'virtual' in studies of technology in action

This paper explores the organisation of social interaction amongst participants ‘in’ Virtual Reality. Despite the wide‐ranging sociological interest in ‘virtual’ technologies, there is rather little detailed sociological investigation of user experiences of the virtual technology par excellence, namely multi‐user Virtual Reality. Interestingly the discourses that underpin discussions of more mundane virtual technologies (eg email, the Web, mobile phones, etc.) tend to draw on design visions for Virtual Reality, such as the opportunities for social life freed from the constraints of the physical body. This paper contributes to a growing number of empirical studies that provide a critique of this view, but maybe more importantly, provides a detailed analysis of action and interaction in virtual worlds. It considers the organisation of interaction within VR with particular emphasis on the ways in which visual features of the digital domain are seen and shared by participants. The paper describes the ways in which the abilities to share views on the virtual world requires participants to overcome problems associated with the very material character of the VR interfaces. The study is based on the analysis of recordings of a Virtual Reality system that enables participants to talk to one another and see one another's actions within a virtual environment.