Managing Mobile Multitasking: The Culture of iPhones on Stanford Campus Morgan G. Ames Department of Communication Stanford University
[email protected] ABSTRACT them either iPhones or Android devices [20]. However, there This paper discusses three concepts that govern technosocial is still little scholarship that examines smartphone use practices among university students with iPhones. First is the specifically. This paper explores the rules, etiquette, and social expectation of constant connection that requires practices that governed the use of iPhones on campus, which multitasking to achieve. Second is the resulting technosocial tended to balance two competing desires. On one hand, pecking order of who gets interrupted or ignored for whom. students reported social expectations of constant connection , Third is the way that many students push back against these which often led to heavy multitasking, emphasized by demands with techno-resistance , deliberately curtailing iPhones but also enabled by other mobile phones, laptops, constant connection to reduce the negative effects of and other devices. On the other hand, two-thirds of students multitasking, in spite of the risk of social censure. These practiced techno-resistance , actively setting boundaries or concepts are developed from interviews with 57 students, 30 disconnecting from their iPhones and other devices. This let hours of field observations, and a survey of 177 students on them minimize the negative cognitive effects of multitasking Stanford campus, which in particular explored iPhone use. and reinforce personal identities and values opposing This research concludes that so-called “digital natives” must constant connection. This latter finding in particular presents still navigate familiar social dynamics and personal desires, a contrasting perspective to the often celebratory tone of both online and off.