are you ever alone?

one of the more interesting findings from my research study is that for mobile phone users being alone requires a conscious choice. i observed people sitting in a park at lunch time over the period of 5 weeks last summer and most had a book or newspaper in their hands and their mobile phone sitting on the seat next to them. they would read and periodically check in with their electronic lunch-time companion - perhaps for the time, perhaps to pass the time, but mainly to see if that seat beside them had temporarily transformed into a friend via a text message or email. on interview, several readers admitted that they do not feel that they are alone if they have their phone with them since they constantly and virtually accessible to their network of friends and family.

are we losing an important individual value - introspection? do the benefits of feeling always connected take something away? and if so is this a permanent loss or a passing phase? check out a March 7th CBC Radio Spark interview on The End of Solitude where i add my thoughts to this debate, http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/03/episode-68-march-4-7-2009/. you can fast forward to about 7:00 minutes into the program for the first part where William Deresiewicz does a lead in and then I speak at about 14:12 minutes for 3 minutes.

so what is it like to be alone now? take a challenge, leave your phone at home for day and go for a walk. let me know what it was like.

u r nevr alone if u have yr phone,
R

cry w/out weepng, tlk w/out speakng, scream w/out raisng yR voice

it occurred to me today that i have not used my voice much, yet. this is despite the fact that within the first 3 hours of being awake i Skype messaged with a friend in england, responded to about 6 emails, initiated 4 other emails, text messaged my husband, wrote a note to our daughter's teacher in her communication book for school, and typed a letter to AirCanada miles program. i communicated to/with over 20 individuals without saying a word.

this is the daily reality of living partially in the virtual world where vocal expression is one of the available, but not necessarily the main, channels for sociality and expression. i have also found myself considering my non-vocal exchanges as talk; for example i might say "when we last spoke..." in reference to a text message exchange, or "i thought you said..." in connection with an email interaction.

speaking a thought is a far less mediated enterprise than writing a thought. especially if you don't think too deeply before opening your mouth (like me). far less opportunity for editing and reflection - quasi-instantaneous. writing provides the opportunity/pitfall of speaking in your head first before unleashing the thought unto others. for different people to talk without speaking offers a form of comfort. several participants in my dissertation research expressed discomfort with phone conversations (mobile and fixed line) versus text or IM, especially young men. even face-to-face interaction appeared to be easier for them since the physical body and environment offer forms of mediation that the empty stillness in a phone-line cannot.

thus, i cracked my knuckles to clear my voice and talked without speaking for much of today. still i had a lot to say, and many heard me. and i am quite happy with that. plus, i am sure i'll make up for lost audio when the next unsuspecting person calls or runs into me later in the grocery.

it's just that the U2 song came to mind today; are we running to stand still? i don't think so, neither do any of the young people in my survey, but then we are techno-optimists...

L8R, R
(ne1 can undRst if th will is thR, wEel an cm Agn)

love taps: wireless ties that bind

recently i overheard two (older) people talking on the subway about how foolish most teenaged mobile phone conversations are. what are they talking about? according to the social commentators of the subway - not a whole lot. a little "whatzup" here and "whachadoin' - not much", there. sometimes the odd gossip in short form. in fact, the majority of 17-22 year old participants in my study claim to idly pass time on their mobile phones about 50% of the time they are on them.

well, what a waste. yet, is it a waste? in a recent PEW Internet report by Wellman and Kennedy (see here) the mobile phone is one of the technologies that may be binding us together. In a US poll of 2,252 people, they found that one in four people felt that using mobile phones and the Internet make them feel closer as a family. Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, calls these silly phone calls "love taps" - just checking-in on each others well-being. in Communications Studies this is considered phatic communication which is more about social grooming than conveying information in the traditional sense.

in my study on mobile phone use among 1st year undergrads i found that participants were subliminally conscious of who called/texed them the most and likewise those whom they mainly reached out to. thus, reciprocity features highly in these "love taps" and in turn contributes to how close young people feel to each other.

so next time you amble past an airy-fairy mobile chat, smile and share the glow tap-tapping its way through the airwaves and heartstrings.

c u l8r allig8r, R

trippin philippina

well, let's just say it's been a tad busy since last i blogged. there was a trip to hong kong, a conference in the philippines, vacation on the softest sand and in the turquoisest water, Ashe, camp, house buying and selling, and of course my research.

in manila i had the extraordinary experience of witnessing how closely the mobile phone is interwoven with a culture. everyone - and i mean everyone - has a mobile, or 2. even the catholic church in manila has set up a service sending daily catechism via text to parishioners.

philippinas are a people who have completely embraced this communication vehicle. according to John Barrett, senior analyst, asia-pacific, at pyramid research inc. in massachusetts, the philippines has the highest rate of SMS usage (text messaging) in the world. between 1998 and 2001, total mobile subscribers increased 550% to 11.1 million from 1.7 million. today it is estimated that there are over 48 million mobile phone subscribers in the philippines, sending 1 billion text messages every day. compare this to the total of 10 billion messages that all Canadians sent in 2007. oh yeah.

i chatted with a young (23 yr old) woman in the cebu airport and asked her why i saw so many people holding 2 phones - often looking at the screen on the 1st while dialing on the 2nd. she explained that it was a way to beat network cross-charges - i.e. call your "Bell" friends on your Bell phone, and your "Rogers" friends on your Rogers phone. i love it - grassroots arbitrage at its best. the developed world may not have riches, but there is a wealth of good research on mobile phone use taking place within the philippine academy. go south-east asia, go!

L8R, R
(ne1 can undRst if th will is thR, IMO. nuf Z)

the garden spade as medium

the one good thing about winter is spring. hailing from the tropics, i am struck with surprise every year at this time to see the seemingly dead patch of land in the front of our house offer life from the damp and snow crushed soil. at the sight of the first industrious bud hacking it's way out to the light, out i go with garden spade in hand to offer support to the renewal at hand.

invariably, within two minutes of my horticultural endeavours a neighbour ambles along and makes a garden-related comment. this prompts a friendly exchange that is the first conversation that i have with this person in about four months (the last encounter taking place just after the snow flew the season before). in the space of about 30-minutes, i would have four or five such chit-chats and gardening is the ice-breaker every time. so it strikes me that the garden spade mediates the renewal of my neighbourhood social network each spring. and i love it.

in his new book "New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile Communication is Reshaping Social Cohesion", Rich Ling looks at rituals as activities that foster community by offering a point of mutual engagement through which barriers to social interaction can be reduced (a la Durkeim, Goffman and Collins). my dissertation research on mobile phones and sociality supports Ling's assertion that these devices, and the rituals build on their use, positively mediate close-tie relations in our social networks.

perhaps in a similar way my garden spade mediates the renewal of my neighourhood networks, and underpins a springtime ritual that begins with, "My goodness neighbour, how does your garden grow!". happy spring.

L8R, R
(ne1 can undRst if th will is thR, IMO. nuf Z)

FIS Research Day 2008

on friday 14th, the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto (my faculty) hosts research day where faculty and students showcase current research efforts. i will present a preview of a paper that i am working on titled "On my own: using mobile phones to bridge loneliness". The following is the abstract for the paper.

This paper reports on findings from a November 2007 survey of mobile phone use in the personal social networks of 17-33 year olds in Toronto, Canada. Findings are articulated within a social affordances lens for this new media, where in this case, social affordances refer to the properties of mobile phones that foster sociality, particularly within transitional environments. The paper considers the role that ritualistic practices associated with the mobile phone play in how 1st year university students manage feelings of loneliness. In particular, using concepts drawn from Activity Theory I analyze the way mobile phones are used to bridge social gaps in 1st year undergraduate personal networks that are exaggerated when students geographically move further away from well-established social and emotional supports provided by kin and high-school friends to attend university. The paper concludes by proposing a framework that can be used to understand the implications of using new media, such as the mobile phone, in bridging gaps for relationships founded in face-to-face interaction.

Keywords: mobile phone, cell phone, social affordances, social networks, transitions, loneliness, rituals.

travel and talk

travel
i attended the 3rd annual iSchools conference held in Los Angeles (and hosted by UCLA) yesterday. apart from the obvious benefit of escaping the coldest days in Toronto for the balmy breezes of Venice beach, there was real benefit in attending this years' conference. the "hot" topics - for me - were (1) mobile phones and intimate relationships - this was a roundtable facilitated by some solid researchers at UC Berkeley and could not have been a better session for my dissertation research; (2) Science and Technology Studies - a panel of some top researchers in this analytical approach; and (3) Communities and Technologies - a "wild card" session which attracted a large group of interdisciplinary researchers who ended up brainstorming the very definition of "community". all-in-all a good meeting, great topics and new extensions in my academic and friendship networks... thanks Ramesh!

talk
tomorrow, March 4th, i present to the Canadian Marketing Association in a roundtable called: "How does social media fit into your marketing strategy?" See http://www.the-cma.org/?WCE=C=47|K=228020. among other things i offer research findings on the demographics that use social media and how privacy/ethics can be considered by marketers.

ciao for now.

L8R, R
(ne1 can undRst if th will is thR, IMO. nuf Z)