Mobile phones

A perspective of James Katz, Richard Ling, Ito & myself (rAAM)

JAMESKATZ

• James E. Katz, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the Department of Communication at Rutgers University where he also directs the Center for Mobile Communication Studies.

• Katz holds the rank of Professor II, Rutgers’ highest professorial rank and which is reserved for those who have achieved national and international eminence in their field.

• Professor Katz has devoted much of his career to exploring the social consequences of new communication technology, especially the mobile phone and Internet.

• Currently he is looking at how personal communication technologies can be used by teens from urban environments to engage in informal science and health learning. This research is being carried out through an NSF-sponsored project with New Jersey’s Liberty Science Center.

MOBILE PHONES AS FASHION STATEMENTS: A CO-CREATION OF MOBILE COMMUNICATION’S PUBLIC

MEANING.

• Analyzed as both PHYSICAL ICON + DECORATIVE DISPLAY related to fashion and design.

  COMMUNICATION OVER DISTANCE AS A

STATUS MARKER.. -Mobile phones were described in terms that

suggested they were a “rich man’s toy” 

-Since it caters to the communication needs of the possessor especially “anywhere & anytime”, it became a status symbol and hence seen as a ‘desirable technology’.

TELEPHONE AS AN AESTHATIC EXPRESSION..

MODERNISM has been incorporated in the design thesis of mobile phones.

- Modernism as an aesthetic idea was formulated at the end of 19th century, where in, telephone which confers instantaneous command, was a significant element in the consideration of how the industrial and scientific ages were affecting the perceptions of history, art and experience.

- An extreme form of Modernism, known as Futurism, as an ideology emphasizes speed, streamlining, rapid motion and instantaneous command, which is very much reflected in the design of the telephone.

- The design of the mobile phone, lead by Modernist impulse, has become part of its possessor’s fashion and personal expression.

FUTURISTIC AND MODERN: INDUSTRY’S PRESENTATION OF THE MOBILE PHONE TO THE PUBLIC..

• When a usable mobile phone burst upon the scene in the late 1980s, it appeared to the public as a highly futuristic and sophisticated technology.

• It was an emblem of the rich and important.• In terms of handsets, Katz believes that the

manufacturers from the outset were aware that they want to have an explicit futuristic and high-status design stance for the mobile telephone.

• “Design has been one of the key elements in the products from Day1”- says Alastair Curtis, director of a Nokia design group.

• A Motorola designer said “We wanted a phone that would be visible enough to express something about you, it started as a COUTYRE product”.

• Several studies opine that a modern, futuristic design impulse has been strongly articulated in the advertising campaigns for mobile communications.

• Acc to a semiotic analysis by Pajnik and Lesjak-Tusek (2002) suggests “Modernity” & “Western values” are the important themes in the mobile ads in Slovenia.

• Acc to a study by Zhang & Harwood (2004), telephones, computers & household appliances are associated with “modern” themes.

• Modernity resonates in the mind of the consumer and therefore, it sells.

• Industry has also sought to be sure that the public would understand the technology to be of high status and socially desirable.

• All the major mobile phone manufacturers started getting into films and thus promoting their brands.

FASHION IMAGING IN CONTEMPORARY MOBILE PHONE ADS..

• Issue of fashion and jewelry are heavily laid on gender connotations.

• Always a youthful girl, mostly heroines are the iconic images and brand images for mobile phones.

• Photographs from pdf…

CONSUMER PERCEPTION & RECEPTION..

• Importance of Fashion- suggested by some indicators based on a focus group discussion.

• A 2001 FGD in Korea suggested that a major proportion of the teenagers and the youth see mobile phones as a fashion statement which evaluates themselves rather than going by the necessity of its possession.

• A 2002 study on American and Japanese youth tells that, both US & the Japanese heavy mobile phone users valued style, while the latter even preferred style over battery life. [ I also go with the Japanese..Vote to style..]

• In a 2004 poll of a survey on a class of undergraduate students who were 20yrs old, at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, over half of the students stated, “My mobile phone should look cool”.

• It is noteworthy that there is a similarity between the way in which the industry has been promoting the mobile phones and the way the young users perceive it.

PROMOTION OF LUXURY AND USER ENHANCEMENT..

• Mobile phone users are of 2types: - Who buy one simply as a communication tool

(care little about appearance) - Who buy one in part because of the status that

a design, logo or brand imparts.

• Many mobile phone adopters seek to individualize them, personalize them and integrate them into their own cultural meaning.

• That’s why, Alastair Curtis, director of Nokia’s design group says “Our primary concern is to tailor products as much to the individual as possible. The phone is an extension of your identity.”

• In order to use the mobile phone as enhancement of the self-image, how the mobile phone is carried and displayed becomes an issue. As a result, new opportunities are created in terms of fashion and display to carry and put mobiles into operation.

• Despite the plentitude of clothing enhancements and accessories, many users rely upon their own creativity rather than commercial products to park their phones. (photographs from pdf)

• This leads to “Morphing”- a creative approach by the users as a part of expressing their identity through the mobile phones.

• As a whole, creation and consumption of mobile phones is a multi-party process, where in, the style dimension is enormously important in the way the mobile phones are understood.

RICHARD LING

• Richard Ling is a professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark and has a position as a sociologist at the Telenor Research Institute located near Oslo, Norway. 

• For the past thirteen years, he has worked at Telenor R&D and has been active in researching issues associated with new information communication technology and society with a particular focus on mobile telephony.

• He has led projects in Norway and participated in projects at the European level.

• In a scenario where even the developing and the under-developing nations have drastically increasing mobile phone users, he presents an overview of the mobile telephone as a social and cultural phenomenon through his book Mobile Phones and Mobile Communication. Research is summarized and made accessible though detailed descriptions of ten mobile users from around the world. These illustrate popular debates, as well as deeper social forces at work.

• The book concludes by considering three themes: 1) The tighter interlacing of daily activities 2) A revolution of control in the social sphere,

and 3) The arrival of a world where the majority of

its inhabitants are reachable, anytime, anywhere. 

BOOKS..

• He runs us through some of the broader issues associated with the adoption & use of mobile communication & how it is influencing the renegotiation of the social sphere through his book Mobile Communications: Re-negotiation of the Social Sphere (co-edited with Per Pedersen).

• The book considers how mobile communication has impacted on society and reflects on how it is used (& sometimes resented) in various public & private spaces.

• It provides an in-depth analysis of specific areas which complement our understanding of the phenomena including:

-The psychological dimensions of mobile communication (addiction, proclivity to be disturbed by others' use of the mobile phone),

-The linguistics of mobile communication, & -The understanding of mobile communication’s

commercialization. A valuable addition to any researcher’s or professional’s reading material in the area of interaction of technology & society. 

• He strongly believes one thing- that mobile phone strengthens social bonds among family and friends. And that is the message he gives in his book New Tech, New Ties: Ties: How Mobile Communication Is Reshaping Social Cohesion. In New Tech, New Ties, Rich Ling examines how the mobile telephone affects both kinds of interactions--those mediated by mobile communication and those that are face to face.

• Ling finds that through the use of various social rituals the mobile telephone strengthens social ties within the circle of friends and family--sometimes at the expense of interaction with those who are physically present--and creates what he calls "bounded solidarity." Ling argues that mobile communication helps to engender and develop social cohesion within the family and the peer group.

• Drawing on the work of Emile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, and Randall Collins, Ling shows that ritual interaction is a catalyst for the development of social bonding. From this perspective, he examines how mobile communication affects face-to-face ritual situations and how ritual is used in interaction mediated by mobile communication.

• His paper Children, youth and mobile communication in 2007 opines thatTeens are the most consummate mobile telephone users.

• Teens have made text messaging into a common form of interaction. They have learned how to coordinate and indeed micro-coordinate interaction via the mobile telephone.

• They use the camera to share photos of enticing members of the opposite sex and to gather peer opinion on the color of potential clothes purchases. The mobile phone is a central artifact of their self-image.

• At the same time the device has resulted in school bans, a new form of bullying and has opened a new front in the war against cheating during exams. There are reports of mobile phone addiction in Korea (Park, 2003) and the extended use of mobile communication can impact on adolescents sleep. 

• The ability to cheaply send text messages on a mobile asynchronous basis was adopted first by teens and is now spreading to other parts of the population.

• From various qualitative and quantitative studies it is evident that, generally when the individual enters their teen-aged years, the mobile telephone makes sense as a way to maintain contact and organize their social networks.

• His Just connect-The social world of the mobile phone says that the boundaries of human relationships are changing.

• Mediated interaction, particularly electronic interaction via the internet and mobile phones has changed the way we conduct our relationships.

• Whereas before there was an emphasis on face to face interaction, now people employ technology to develop and maintain relationships.

• This article examines the rapid rise of mobile telephony and considers how it has changed social interaction.

Mobile communication and social capital in Europe• Based on material gathered within the EU e-living

project, this paper examines one's integration into their social network and the relationship between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use and social integration.

• The data was gathered via questionnaire in Norway, the UK, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria and Israel. A total of 10,534 persons were interviewed, approximately 1,750 in each country.

• This paper was co-authored with Brigitte Yttri, Ben Andersen and Deborah Diduca.

The adoption of mobile telephony among Norwegian teens, May 2000• This paper is an examination of the ownership

and use of mobile telephones among teens in Norway.

• The data indicates that the majority of mid and older teens have already adopted a mobile telephone and that the adoption rates are increasing among the younger teens.

• It also shows that young girls are quicker to own mobile telephones than young boys but that the boys have multiple subscriptions - and probably handsets - significantly more often than the girls.

• Finally, the data shows that the teens use about 6 - 8% of their monthly "income" on mobile telephony.

[ The analysis is based on a telephone survey of 1014 teens carried out in May of 2000. The respondents were between 13 and 20 years old. ]

MIZUKO ITO A.K.A

MIMI ITO

• She is a cultural anthropologist studying new media use, particularly among young people in Japan and the US. My research right now focuses on digital media use in the US and portable technologies in Japan.

• Right now, she is working as an Associate Researcher at the Humanities Research Institute at the University of California, Irvine. In addition, she is a Visiting Associate Professor at the Keio University Graduate School of Media and Governance.

Mobile Communications: Re-negotiation of the Social Sphere

• She argues that the mobile phone can indeed enable communication that crosses prior social boundaries, but this does not necessarily mean that the devices erode the integrity of existing places or social identities.

• While Japanese youth actively use mobile phones to overcome limitations inherent in their weak social status, their usage is highly deferential to institutions of home and school and the integrity of existing places.

• Characteristics of mobile phones and mobile communication are not inherent in the device, but are determined by social and cultural context and power relations

• She argues that the practices and cultures of youth are not solely outcomes of a certain state of developmental maturity, or even of interpersonal relations, but are also conditioned by the regulative and normative force of places shifting the center of attention from the practices and identities of youth themselves to their institutional and cross-generational surrounds.

Japanese Youth and Communication Technology

• In Japan, young people have lea mobile media adoption since the early nineties.

• Mobile texting, in particular, was an innovation largely initiated by young people, with origins in pager cultures, where girls sent numeric codes to pagers from home phones and payphones (Fujimoto 2005;Okada 2005).

• In his study of youth mobile media cultures, Kenichi Fujimoto (2005) describes "the girls' pager revolution" as a technology-linked paradigm shift, where certain cultural values became embedded in mobile technologies that have now infiltrated the general population.

• Although mobile phones are not pervasive among people of all ages and occupations, young people continue to use their phones more, spend more on phones, and engage in higher frequencies of text mobile email exchanges (VR 2002; Yoshii et al. 2002).

• Japanese youth, through college, have less private space compared their US and even European counterparts.

• The Japanese urban home is tiny by middle-class American standards, and teens and children generally share a room with a sibling or a parent.

• Most college students in Tokyo live with their parents, often even after they begin work, as the costs of renting an apartment in an urban area are prohibitively high.

• Unlike the US, there is no practice for teens to get their own landline at a certain age, or to have a private phone in their room.

• The costs of running a landline to a Japanese home are very high, from $600 USD and up, about twice what it costs to get a mobile phone. It is thus extremely rare for a home to have more than one landline.

• In her study of American and Japanese youth, Merry White (1994) sees fewer conflicts between Japanese parents and youths than their American counterparts, and less pathologization of youth as a problematic life stage.

• Dependency has less social stigma than it does among Euro-American youths, and this is institutionalized in the protective functions of family that extend through college and often beyond.

• Meetings among friends almost always occurred in a third-party space run by indifferent adults, such as a fast food restaurant, karaoke spot, or family restaurant.

• Even for college students living on their own, their space is generally so small and cramped that it is not appropriate for hanging out with groups of friends.

• The phone has always provided a way of overcoming the spatial boundary of the home, for teens to talk with each other late at night, and shut out their parents and siblings.

• The mobile phone has further revolutionized the power-geometry of space-time compression for teens in the home, enabling them to communicate without the surveillance of parents and siblings.

• This has freed youths to call each other without the embarrassment of revealing a possible romantic liaison, or at hours of the day when other family members are likely to be asleep.