Going Wireless: Behavior & Practice of New Mobile Phone Users
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Going Wireless: Behavior & Practice of New Mobile Phone Users Leysia Palen1, Marilyn Salzman2 & Ed Youngs2 1Department of Computer Science 2 U S WEST Advanced Technologies University of Colorado, Boulder Design and Usability Group Boulder, CO 80309 USA Boulder, CO 80303 USA +1 (303) 492-3902 +1 (303) 541-6454; (303) 541-7160 [email protected] [email protected]; [email protected] ABSTRACT now present in a variety of contexts, and can be remotely and We report on the results of a study in which 19 new mobile unpredictably activated, mobile phones are subject to social phone users were closely tracked for the first six weeks scrutiny and play a role in the social world. They are after service acquisition. Results show that new users tend surrounded by a system of actors who wittingly or unwittingly to rapidly modify their perceptions of social play a role in mobile phone conversation. Finally, a user’s appropriateness around mobile phone use, that actual nature understanding of how mobile telephony works is not only a of use frequently differs from what users initially predict, matter of learning about its multiple technical components and that com-prehension of service-oriented technologies (hardware, software, and network services), but also of can be problematic. We describe instances and features of understanding service provider policies and integrating mobile telephony practice. When in use, mobile phones information garnered from sales, marketing, and billing occupy multiple social spaces simultaneously, spaces with communications. norms that sometimes conflict: the physical space of the Mobile telephony is rapidly becoming a feature of our culture, mobile phone user and the virtual space of the conversation. yet we do not understand its effects on communicative practice Keywords: Wireless communications; mobile, cellular, and and behavior, especially with respect to the interaction and co- digital telephony; communicative practice; qualitative research. evolution of the technology and human activity. As wireless communications and information management applications INTRODUCTION proliferate, empirical understanding of practice and social Mobile telephone use has proliferated in recent years. Some impacts becomes relevant for scholars and practitioners alike. areas of the world have enjoyed especially rapid deployment We report here on a study of 19 first-time mobile phone users and high penetration of mobile telephony, with Finland leading followed closely during the first six weeks after service the way at 65% [1]. It is no longer unusual to see people using acquisition. The objective of the study was to understand how mobile phones in a variety of contexts. Indeed, use is so and why people use mobile phones in a range of situations, and frequent and common in some places that people are regularly to understand their processes of discovery and integration of and formally reminded to turn off mobile phones in movie mobile telephony into daily life. We conducted multiple theaters, at public performances, and in restaurants to avoid interviews over the course of the six weeks, were in regular negative social repercussions. (e.g., [4]). Reminders in hospitals phone and voicemail contact with the subjects, and captured and airplanes are also provided, but usually for safety-critical actual calling behavior data. reasons. We report on: Although mobile phones are perceived as devices that directly • serve the individuals who own them, they are also social evolving expectations and communicative practices of new artifacts. As a communications technology, they support mobile phone users; coordination with others. Additionally, mobile telephony • perceptions of and adaptation to social norms; and communicative practice is influenced by the social contexts in • user comprehension of mobile telephony technology as a which the phones are used. Communicative practice is also construction of technological and social components. influenced by attributes of the owners’ lifestyle, including their From these observations, we extend our discussion to include social networks. Furthermore, because they are devices that are an analysis of how mobile phones occupy multiple social spaces simultaneously, and how that affects public perception and norm development. We also present temporal and spatial Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not aspects of social coordination that we believe are important to made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear mobile telephony practice. this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific RELATED RESEARCH permission and/or a fee. The popular literature is rife with information about mobile CSCW’00, December 2-6, 2000, Philadelphia, PA. telephony products, as well as with anecdotal commentary Copyright 2000 ACM 1-58113-222-0/00/0012…$5.00. 201 about its social propriety. Published empirical research on call “docucentric interactions” and “telecentric interactions.” Of mobile telephony practice has emerged only recently. In note is their observation that mobile phones are flexible, addition to this small corpus of work, Fischer’s work on convenient, and versatile in supporting mobile work; in this landline telephony [2] is briefly reviewed here. way they share characteristics with paper documents but less so with laptop computers. Their focus pertains to the mobile Landline Telephony telephony practice of white-collar workers with document- Accounts of the socio-historical development of the telephone based activities, whereas our investigation attempts to examine are useful in understanding parallels in mobile telephony. behavior and practice of a wider population. Claude Fischer’s “America Calling” [2] is notable; it reviews the emergence of landline telephony in social life through the Ling and Yttri [6] empirically examine use and attitudes among mid-twentieth century. multiple populations, but primarily document teen use in an area of the world where adoption is particularly high (i.e., There are some parallels between the early acceptance of Scandinavia). They discuss the phone as an indicator of social landline telephony and mobile telephony, as well as some status, as a means by which teens express belonging in social interesting differences. Fischer found that justifications for groups, as well as to manage what Ling and Yttri call “hyper- acquisition of landline telephony tended to be more th coordination,” a kind of coordination that transcends activity- functionally, rather than socially, focused. In the early 20 based coordination to include social and emotional interaction. century, safety was a primary reason for telephony adoption, with “business reasons” operating as another justification for Ling has also made important contributions in the acquiring a landline phone. However, Fischer notes that despite documentation of attitudes and social propriety of mobile these more functionally-focused reasons for acquisition, the phone use in public locations, with an emphasis on restaurant telephone grew to become associated with acts of sociability venues [5]. This study and the Ling and Yttri study [6] are used even as early as the 1910s, which soon became a reason for as a basis for some of the analyses of the findings reported here. acquisition itself. As will be discussed, our work has also found Our work extends their findings as well, particularly with that “safety” and “business” uses were frequently cited reasons respect to our documentation of users’ rapidly changing for mobile telephony adoption. However, “social use” was perceptions of social propriety with direct mobile telephony conspicuously absent among the reasons cited for initial mobile experience. telephony adoption. Despite this, acts of social coordination METHOD quickly grew to become a very important part of com- Qualitative techniques were used to collect data over the course munication practice for nearly all subjects. of six weeks, including interviews and voice-mail “diaries.” Fischer also notes that early landline phone users had to deal Calling behavior data was also collected for approximately the with evolving norms around phone greetings, publicity of first four months of use. conversations (in the context of the day with party lines and Subject Selection eavesdropping operators), and with resolving negative feelings Nineteen people participated in the study. Prior to our of ease of accessibility—issues that mobile phone users intervention, subjects had ordered mobile telephony service just contend with today. days before and had qualified as having no previous direct By studying Fischer’s work, differences between landline and experience with it. We did make one exception by including a mobile telephony also become clear. In particular, we observe subject who had previous mobile phone experience, but had that a major difference between the social milieux of the special access and safety needs thought to be important to the fledgling days of landline and mobile telephony is the agency of investigation (Subject 13; see Table 1). Subjects also had to be privacy violation. Privacy violation concerns have shifted from geographically proximal to the researchers to allow for frequent the surrounding public’s infringement upon the landline interviews. speaker’s conversational