Transcript Social Implications of Mobile Communications

Social Implications of
Mobile Communication
Based on presentation
by Bodine, Fung &Moraveji
Overview
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Space
Time
Language
Sociability and acceptable behaviour
Coordination
Smart Mobs
Photo mobiles
Mobile Gaming
Future
Space
• People can share their experience of an event, e.g.
concert, gigs, with distant other(s)
• And experience of place (Beckham Spain ad - he
sends pictures of sunny skies to Man Utd players in
rainy Manchester)
• Public and private boundaries change
– e.g. one person at home, one in restaurant
• Physical space vs. Virtual space
– Norms in one space not same as norms in other space
– Social conflict e.g. driving
• Perpetual contact a constraint or freedom?
• Free to turn off? Several people never turned off their
mobiles, even when sleeping
University life?
• Increasingly no landline – eases disputes
over usage & bills
• Can be used as alarm to wake up for
classes
• Easier to communicate with fellow
students
• Potential of having SMS about cancelled
class etc
Space
• Phones can cut you off from other people you’re with,
but often people share phones or phone
simultaneously, each paying attention to the other’s
call
Time
• When is somebody considered late?
– Time is ‘softened’, blurred, lazy??
– Formal/informal settings – behaviour differs
– flexibility
• No time for self – always-on
• Turn it off? Positive choice
• Don’t have to set aside time & place for
communication
– Enables other activities, talk on-the-go
Language
• Subculture grew out of the business models of
mobile operators
– Pricing models created demand for new language
• Generation Text creates a teen-only zone
– 80%+ of age 45+ have never sent SMS (global users)
• Permeates into “real life”
– - children use txt language in exams (apocryphal?)
Just for young urban people?
What about older people?
• Improve quality of life through increased security &
autonomy
– Social Isolation
– Being Lost
– Needing Assistance
• By 2007, people age 50+ will
account for 25% of all online
retail spending
Sources: Jupiter & www.seniornet.org
What about younger people?
•Children are intensive users of mobiles, but
don’t figure in marketing campaigns – why
is that? Radiation fears? Attracting theft?
Debt?
•Phone = monitoring, safety, so parents are
happy to buy them
(see www.mobileyouth.org for lots of detail on this)
Sociability
• Annoying other people – if in same group/table
in restaurant, service encounter
• Depends on type of setting – café/restaurant,
noisy train/quiet time;
• Talking abnormally loudly
• More or less sociable?
• Protection from unsafe/embarassing siutaions
• Distance yourself from situation via phone
• Direct correlation: phone use, tolerance
– Britain: 45% of age 24+ say ban phone in public
– Compare to only 25% under age 24
Some usages
• Maintain friendships – v minimal, e.g. how
r u or similar, as token to mean you’re
thinking of friend
• Using rings to mean yes/no, ring once to
let us know you’re safe
Co-ordination
• Micro-coordinate schedules with others
– “I’m at the gate now” – use instead of doorbell
• I can see you – when locating friend in
public place
• Do we need any pasta sauce? Making
decisions involving distant other
Coordination: The “Battle of
Seattle”: 12/99
• Protestors coordinated
spontaneously and
dynamically with:
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SMS en masse
mobile phones (voice)
email from laptop PCs
PDAs on the net
• Protestors maintained organisational continuity
Photos & mobiles
• Combining phone and digital camera transcending space if used with distant
other
• Send photos home to self/others
• Can be used in same place (smiles advert)
• Transcends time - show past experience
to present other
Next mCommerce Goldmine: Games
• Worldwide Revenue Forecast in 2005
Mobile gaming:
$5 billion or 23%
Total Mobile Commerce Revenue: $22.2 billion
• In 2005, 80% of US and Europe wireless
phone users will play online games on wireless
devices (200 million people)
Sources: Jupiter Research, Yankee Group
Gaming Trends
Single-player, arcade-style
Multi-player, interactive & social
– Japan, Korea, HK, Taiwan, Scandinavia
– What’s common about these? 2.5/3G networks
• Why multiplayer gaming?
– Increased interaction with friends, new and old
– Engaging games involving long-term contact
– Look at PC gaming industry trend to multiplayer
• SimCity & EverQuest moving to mobile phones
“Gladiator” by Jamdat
• One of the most successful mobile apps
• 850,000 people, 10 million minutes after
1 year
• ‘Hooked’ users & casual users
“Gladiator” by Jamdat
Psychological Implications of Social Gaming
• Anthropomorphism of device
– “We’re like buddies”
• Removes sense of displacement:
– Rather than becoming a character, the person
actually represents himself in a mobile game
• Local confrontation
– If someone loses, he might lose his temper
and seek revenge
Questions? Comments?
What will the future look like?
References
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Mobile Junkies Reshaping Society? http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55561,00.html
Euro Teens Understand This http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,53659,00.html
Tiny Cell Phone or Big Brother? http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,57040,00.html
Configuring the Mobile User: Sociological and Industry Views http://link.springerny.com/link/service/journals/00779/bibs/1005002/10050146.htm
Mobile Telephony in a Connected Life http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=504732
Going Wireless: Behavior & Practice of New Mobile Phone Users.
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~palen/Papers/cscwPalen.pdf
The computer for the 21st Century. Mark Weiser, Scientific American 1991.
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~cfchen/readings/pvc/computer-for-21-century.pdf
The Second-Order Effects of Wireless. Alan Cooper, April 2001.
http://www.cooper.com/newsletters/apr01/second_order_effects_of_wireless.htm
Universal Access to Mobile Telephony as a Way to Enhance the Autonomy of Elderly People
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=564551
The Texting Ritual: Text-messaging and the social significance of mobile plan use http://mobile-phone-shopsuk.com/news/texting-mobile-phone-use-181202.html
Europes teens lead the Texting wave http://www.sunspot.net/technology/custom/pluggedin/balpl.euroteens16jan16,0,79714.story?coll=bal%2Dpe%2Dpluggedin
The Social Consequences of Mobile Telephony http://members.aol.com/leshaddon/Framing.html
Smart Mobs http://www.smartmobs.com
Pirates! Using the Physical World as a Game Board, Staffan Bjork, Jennica Falk, Rebecca Hansson, Peter Ljungstrand
Mobile Commerce Projections http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,290409,00.html
Mobile gaming market to hit $5 billion mark by 2006 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2086026,00.html
Multiplayer – the Only Mobile Game http://www.thefeature.com/article.jsp?pageid-26917
Carriers Make Full-Court Press for the Teen Market http://www.mcommercetimes.com/Indusry/258
Handango Launches Mobile Gaming http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/printer/18176
Playtime http://www.business2.com/articles/web/print/0,1650,43129,00.html
Sweet Sixteen for AT&T Wireless’ New mMode series and nGame
http://industry.java.sun.com/javanews/stories/story2/0,1072,46041,00.html