Social Implications of Mobile Communication

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Social Implications ofMobile Communication

• Based on presentation
• by Bodine, Fung Moraveji

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Overview

• Space
• Time
• Language
• Sociability and acceptable behaviour
• Coordination
• Smart Mobs
• Photo mobiles
• Mobile Gaming
• Future

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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

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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

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Space

• Phones can cut you off from other people youre
  with, but often people share phones or phone
  simultaneously, each paying attention to the
  others call

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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
• Dont have to set aside time place for
  communication
• Enables other activities, talk on-the-go

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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?)

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Just for young urban people?
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What about older people?

• Improve quality of life through increased
  security autonomy
• Social Isolation
• Being Lost
• Needing Assistance
• By 2007, people age 50 willaccount for 25 of
  all onlineretail spending
• Sources Jupiter www.seniornet.org

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What about younger people?

• Children are intensive users of mobiles, but
  dont 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)

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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

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Some usages

• Maintain friendships v minimal, e.g. how r u or
  similar, as token to mean youre thinking of
  friend
• Using rings to mean yes/no, ring once to let us
  know youre safe

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Co-ordination

• Micro-coordinate schedules with others
• Im 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

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Coordination The Battle of Seattle 12/99

• Protestors coordinatedspontaneously
  anddynamically with
• SMS en masse
• mobile phones (voice)
• email from laptop PCs
• PDAs on the net
• Protestors maintained organisational continuity

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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

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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
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Gaming Trends

• Single-player, arcade-style
• Multi-player, interactive social
• Japan, Korea, HK, Taiwan, Scandinavia
• Whats 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

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Gladiator by Jamdat

• One of the most successful mobile apps
• 850,000 people, 10 million minutes after 1 year
• Hooked users casual users

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Gladiator by Jamdat
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Psychological Implications of Social Gaming

• Anthropomorphism of device
• Were 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

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Questions? Comments?What will the future look
like?
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References

• Mobile Junkies Reshaping Society?
  http//www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55561,00.
  html
• Euro Teens Understand This http//www.wired.com/ne
  ws/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.springer-ny.com/link/se
  rvice/journals/00779/bibs/1005002/10050146.htm
• Mobile Telephony in a Connected Life
  http//portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id504732
• Going Wireless Behavior Practice of New
  Mobile Phone Users. http//www.cs.colorado.edu/pa
  len/Papers/cscwPalen.pdf
• The computer for the 21st Century. Mark Weiser,
  Scientific American 1991. http//www.andrew.cmu.ed
  u/cfchen/readings/pvc/computer-for-21-century.pdf
  
• The Second-Order Effects of Wireless. Alan
  Cooper, April 2001. http//www.cooper.com/newslett
  ers/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?id564551
• The Texting Ritual Text-messaging and the
  social significance of mobile plan use
  http//mobile-phone-shops-uk.com/news/texting-mobi
  le-phone-use-181202.html
• Europes teens lead the Texting wave
  http//www.sunspot.net/technology/custom/pluggedin
  /bal-pl.euroteens16jan16,0,79714.story?collbal2D
  pe2Dpluggedin
• 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.entrepreneu
  r.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-s208602
  6,00.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/181
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