The perspective of researchers like James Katz, Richard Ling and Ito

1. Mobile phones
A perspective of
James Katz,
Richard Ling,
Ito
&
myself (rAAM)

2. JAMESKATZ
• James E. Katz, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the Department of
Communication at Rutgers University where he also directs the Center
for Mobile Communication Studies.
• Katz holds the rank of Professor II, Rutgers’ highest professorial rank
and which is reserved for those who have achieved national and
international eminence in their field.
• Professor Katz has devoted much of his career to exploring the social
consequences of new communication technology, especially the
mobile phone and Internet.
• Currently he is looking at how personal communication technologies can
be used by teens from urban environments to engage in informal
science and health learning. This research is being carried out through
an NSF-sponsored project with New Jersey’s Liberty Science Center.

3. MOBILE PHONES AS FASHION STATEMENTS: A CO-CREATION OF
MOBILE COMMUNICATION’S PUBLIC MEANING.
• Analyzed as both PHYSICAL ICON + DECORATIVE DISPLAY related to fashion and
design.
 COMMUNICATION OVER DISTANCE AS A STATUS MARKER..
-Mobile phones were described in terms that suggested they were a “rich
man‟s toy”
-Since it caters to the communication needs of the possessor especially
“anywhere & anytime”, it became a status symbol and hence seen as a
„desirable technology‟.

4.  TELEPHONE AS AN AESTHATIC EXPRESSION..
MODERNISM has been incorporated in the design thesis of mobile phones.
- Modernism as an aesthetic idea was formulated at the end of 19th century,
where in, telephone which confers instantaneous command, was a significant
element in the consideration of how the industrial and scientific ages were
affecting the perceptions of history, art and experience.
- An extreme form of Modernism, known as Futurism, as an ideology emphasizes
speed, streamlining, rapid motion and instantaneous command, which is very
much reflected in the design of the telephone.
- The design of the mobile phone, lead by Modernist impulse, has become part of
its possessor’s fashion and personal expression.

5. FUTURISTIC AND MODERN: INDUSTRY‟S PRESENTATION OF THE MOBILE
PHONE TO THE PUBLIC..
• When a usable mobile phone burst upon the scene in the late 1980s, it appeared
to the public as a highly futuristic and sophisticated technology.
• It was an emblem of the rich and important.
• In terms of handsets, Katz believes that the manufacturers from the outset
were aware that they want to have an explicit futuristic and high-status design
stance for the mobile telephone.
• “Design has been one of the key elements in the products from Day1”-
says Alastair Curtis, director of a Nokia design group.
• A Motorola designer said “We wanted a phone that would be visible enough
to express something about you, it started as a COUTYRE product”.

6. • Several studies opine that a modern, futuristic design impulse has been
strongly articulated in the advertising campaigns for mobile communications.
• Acc to a semiotic analysis by Pajnik and Lesjak-Tusek (2002) suggests
“Modernity” & “Western values” are the important themes in the mobile
ads in Slovenia.
• Acc to a study by Zhang & Harwood (2004), telephones, computers & household
appliances are associated with “modern” themes.
• Modernity resonates in the mind of the consumer and therefore, it sells.
• Industry has also sought to be sure that the public would understand the
technology to be of high status and socially desirable.
• All the major mobile phone manufacturers started getting into films and thus
promoting their brands.

7.  FASHION IMAGING IN CONTEMPORARY MOBILE PHONE ADS..
• Issue of fashion and jewelry are heavily laid on gender connotations.
• Always a youthful girl, mostly heroines are the iconic images and brand images
for mobile phones.
• Photographs from pdf…

8.  CONSUMER PERCEPTION & RECEPTION..
• Importance of Fashion- suggested by some indicators based on a focus group
discussion.
• A 2001 FGD in Korea suggested that a major proportion of the teenagers and
the youth see mobile phones as a fashion statement which evaluates
themselves rather than going by the necessity of its possession.
• A 2002 study on American and Japanese youth tells that, both US & the
Japanese heavy mobile phone users valued style, while the latter even
preferred style over battery life. [ I also go with the Japanese..Vote to style..]
• In a 2004 poll of a survey on a class of undergraduate students who were
20yrs old, at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, over half
of the students stated, “My mobile phone should look cool”.
• It is noteworthy that there is a similarity between the way in which the
industry has been promoting the mobile phones and the way the young
users perceive it.

9.  PROMOTION OF LUXURY AND USER ENHANCEMENT..
• Mobile phone users are of 2types:
- Who buy one simply as a communication tool (care little about appearance)
- Who buy one in part because of the status that a design, logo or brand
imparts.
• Many mobile phone adopters seek to individualize them, personalize them and
integrate them into their own cultural meaning.
• That’s why, Alastair Curtis, director of Nokia’s design group says “Our primary
concern is to tailor products as much to the individual as possible. The
phone is an extension of your identity.”

10. • In order to use the mobile phone as enhancement of the self-image, how the
mobile phone is carried and displayed becomes an issue. As a result, new
opportunities are created in terms of fashion and display to carry and put
mobiles into operation.
• Despite the plentitude of clothing enhancements and accessories, many users
rely upon their own creativity rather than commercial products to park their
phones. (photographs from pdf)
• This leads to “Morphing”- a creative approach by the users as a part of
expressing their identity through the mobile phones.
• As a whole, creation and consumption of mobile phones is a multi-party
process, where in, the style dimension is enormously important in the way the
mobile phones are understood.

11. RICHARD LING
• Richard Ling is a professor at the IT University of
Copenhagen, Denmark and has a position as a sociologist at
the Telenor Research Institute located near Oslo, Norway.
• For the past thirteen years, he has worked at Telenor R&D
and has been active in researching issues associated with
new information communication technology and society
with a particular focus on mobile telephony.
• He has led projects in Norway and participated in projects
at the European level.

12. BOOKS..
• In a scenario where even the developing and the under-developing nations have
drastically increasing mobile phone users, he presents an overview of the
mobile telephone as a social and cultural phenomenon through his book
Mobile Phones and Mobile Communication. Research is summarized and
made accessible though detailed descriptions of ten mobile users from around
the world. These illustrate popular debates, as well as deeper social forces at
work.
• The book concludes by considering three themes:
1) The tighter interlacing of daily activities
2) A revolution of control in the social sphere, and
3) The arrival of a world where the majority of its inhabitants are reachable,
anytime, anywhere.

13. • He runs us through some of the broader issues associated with the adoption &
use of mobile communication & how it is influencing the renegotiation of
the social sphere through his book Mobile Communications: Re-negotiation
of the Social Sphere (co-edited with Per Pedersen).
• The book considers how mobile communication has impacted on society and
reflects on how it is used (& sometimes resented) in various public & private
spaces.
• It provides an in-depth analysis of specific areas which complement our
understanding of the phenomena including:
-The psychological dimensions of mobile communication (addiction, proclivity to
be disturbed by others' use of the mobile phone),
-The linguistics of mobile communication, &
-The understanding of mobile communication’s commercialization. A valuable
addition to any researcher’s or professional’s reading material in the area of
interaction of technology & society.

14. • He strongly believes one thing- that mobile phone strengthens social bonds
among family and friends. And that is the message he gives in his book New
Tech, New Ties: Ties: How Mobile Communication Is Reshaping Social
Cohesion. In New Tech, New Ties, Rich Ling examines how the mobile telephone
affects both kinds of interactions--those mediated by mobile communication
and those that are face to face.
• Ling finds that through the use of various social rituals the mobile telephone
strengthens social ties within the circle of friends and family--sometimes at
the expense of interaction with those who are physically present--and creates
what he calls "bounded solidarity." Ling argues that mobile communication
helps to engender and develop social cohesion within the family and the
peer group.
• Drawing on the work of Emile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, and Randall Collins,
Ling shows that ritual interaction is a catalyst for the development of social
bonding. From this perspective, he examines how mobile communication affects
face-to-face ritual situations and how ritual is used in interaction mediated by
mobile communication.

15. • His paper Children, youth and mobile communication in 2007 opines that
Teens are the most consummate mobile telephone users.
• Teens have made text messaging into a common form of interaction. They have
learned how to coordinate and indeed micro-coordinate interaction via the
mobile telephone.
• They use the camera to share photos of enticing members of the opposite sex
and to gather peer opinion on the color of potential clothes purchases. The
mobile phone is a central artifact of their self-image.
• At the same time the device has resulted in school bans, a new form of bullying
and has opened a new front in the war against cheating during exams. There
are reports of mobile phone addiction in Korea (Park, 2003) and the extended
use of mobile communication can impact on adolescents sleep.
• The ability to cheaply send text messages on a mobile asynchronous basis was
adopted first by teens and is now spreading to other parts of the population.
• From various qualitative and quantitative studies it is evident that, generally
when the individual enters their teen-aged years, the mobile telephone makes
sense as a way to maintain contact and organize their social networks.

16. • His Just connect-The social world of the mobile phone says that the
boundaries of human relationships are changing.
• Mediated interaction, particularly electronic interaction via the internet and
mobile phones has changed the way we conduct our relationships.
• Whereas before there was an emphasis on face to face interaction, now people
employ technology to develop and maintain relationships.
• This article examines the rapid rise of mobile telephony and considers how it
has changed social interaction.

17. Mobile communication and social capital in Europe
• Based on material gathered within the EU e-living project, this paper examines
one's integration into their social network and the relationship between
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use and social integration.
• The data was gathered via questionnaire in Norway, the UK, Germany, Italy,
Bulgaria and Israel. A total of 10,534 persons were interviewed, approximately
1,750 in each country.
• This paper was co-authored with Brigitte Yttri, Ben Andersen and Deborah
Diduca.

18. The adoption of mobile telephony among Norwegian teens, May
2000
• This paper is an examination of the ownership and use of mobile telephones
among teens in Norway.
• The data indicates that the majority of mid and older teens have already
adopted a mobile telephone and that the adoption rates are increasing among
the younger teens.
• It also shows that young girls are quicker to own mobile telephones than young
boys but that the boys have multiple subscriptions - and probably handsets -
significantly more often than the girls.
• Finally, the data shows that the teens use about 6 - 8% of their monthly
"income" on mobile telephony.
[ The analysis is based on a telephone survey of 1014 teens carried out in May of
2000. The respondents were between 13 and 20 years old. ]

19. MIZUKO ITO
A.K.A
MIMI ITO
• She is a cultural anthropologist studying new media use,
particularly among young people in Japan and the US.
My research right now focuses on digital media use in the US and
portable technologies in Japan.
• Right now, she is working as an Associate Researcher at the
Humanities Research Institute at the University of California,
Irvine. In addition, she is a Visiting Associate Professor at the Keio
University Graduate School of Media and Governance.

20. Mobile Communications: Re-negotiation of the Social Sphere
• She argues that the mobile phone can indeed enable communication that
crosses prior social boundaries, but this does not necessarily mean that the
devices erode the integrity of existing places or social identities.
• While Japanese youth actively use mobile phones to overcome limitations
inherent in their weak social status, their usage is highly deferential to
institutions of home and school and the integrity of existing places.
• Characteristics of mobile phones and mobile communication are not inherent in
the device, but are determined by social and cultural context and power
relations
• She argues that the practices and cultures of youth are not solely outcomes of
a certain state of developmental maturity, or even of interpersonal relations,
but are also conditioned by the regulative and normative force of places
shifting the center of attention from the practices and identities of youth
themselves to their institutional and cross-generational surrounds.

21. Japanese Youth and Communication Technology
• In Japan, young people have lea mobile media adoption since the early nineties.
• Mobile texting, in particular, was an innovation largely initiated by young people,
with origins in pager cultures, where girls sent numeric codes to pagers from
home phones and payphones (Fujimoto 2005;Okada 2005).
• In his study of youth mobile media cultures, Kenichi Fujimoto (2005) describes
"the girls' pager revolution" as a technology-linked paradigm shift, where
certain cultural values became embedded in mobile technologies that have now
infiltrated the general population.
• Although mobile phones are not pervasive among people of all ages and
occupations, young people continue to use their phones more, spend more on
phones, and engage in higher frequencies of text mobile email exchanges (VR
2002; Yoshii et al. 2002).

22. • Japanese youth, through college, have less private space compared their
US and even European counterparts.
• The Japanese urban home is tiny by middle-class American standards, and
teens and children generally share a room with a sibling or a parent.
• Most college students in Tokyo live with their parents, often even after they
begin work, as the costs of renting an apartment in an urban area are
prohibitively high.
• Unlike the US, there is no practice for teens to get their own landline at a
certain age, or to have a private phone in their room.
• The costs of running a landline to a Japanese home are very high, from $600
USD and up, about twice what it costs to get a mobile phone. It is thus
extremely rare for a home to have more than one landline.
• In her study of American and Japanese youth, Merry White (1994) sees fewer
conflicts between Japanese parents and youths than their American
counterparts, and less pathologization of youth as a problematic life stage.

23. • Dependency has less social stigma than it does among Euro-American youths,
and this is institutionalized in the protective functions of family that extend
through college and often beyond.
• Meetings among friends almost always occurred in a third-party space run by
indifferent adults, such as a fast food restaurant, karaoke spot, or family
restaurant.
• Even for college students living on their own, their space is generally so small
and cramped that it is not appropriate for hanging out with groups of friends.
• The phone has always provided a way of overcoming the spatial boundary
of the home, for teens to talk with each other late at night, and shut out their
parents and siblings.
• The mobile phone has further revolutionized the power-geometry of
space-time compression for teens in the home, enabling them to
communicate without the surveillance of parents and siblings.
• This has freed youths to call each other without the embarrassment of
revealing a possible romantic liaison, or at hours of the day when other family
members are likely to be asleep.