Do mobile technologies reshape speaking, writing, or reading?

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi S. Baron
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Voice Recognition ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Portable Devices ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Voice Calls ◽  
Recognition Software

With the growth of mobile communication technologies, we increasingly use portable devices to produce and read text that previously existed in hardcopy or on stationary screens. Voice recognition software now enables us to speak rather than write, potentially shifting the current dominance of texting over voice calls on mobile phones. This article describes contemporary studies of language use on mobile technologies and poses research questions for new investigations.

Understanding women’s mobile phone use in rural Kenya: An affordance-based approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Wyche ◽  
Nightingale Simiyu ◽  
Martha E. Othieno
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Mobile Phone Use ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Rural Kenya ◽  
Pertinent Information ◽  
Definition Of

Increases in mobile phone ownership and Internet access throughout Africa continue to motivate initiatives to use information and communication technologies (ICTs)—in particular, mobile phones—to address long-standing socioeconomic problems in the “developing world.” While it is generally recognized that mobile phones may help to address these problems by providing pertinent information, less widely known is exactly how (and if) a handset’s human–computer interface—that is, its software and hardware design—supports this form of communication. The concept of “affordances” has long been used to answer such questions. In this paper, we use Hartson’s definition of affordances to qualitatively investigate rural Kenyan women’s interactions with their mobile phones. Our detailed analysis provides empirically grounded answers to questions about the cognitive, physical, and sensory affordances of handsets used in our field sites and how they support and/or constrain mobile communication. We then discuss the implications of our findings: in particular, how this affordance-based approach draws attention to mobile phones’ design features and to the context in which they and their users are embedded—a focus which suggests new design and research opportunities in mobile communication.

Growing Up Wireless

2008 ◽  
pp. 99-125
Author(s):  
Letizia Caronia
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Cultural Models ◽  
Intergenerational Relationships ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter illustrates the role of the mobile phone in the rise of new cultural models of parenting. According to a phenomenological theoretical approach to culture and everyday life, the author argues that the relationship between technologies, culture, and society should be conceived as a mutual construction. As cultural artefacts, mobile communication technologies both are domesticated by people into their cultural ways of living and create new ones. How are mobile phones domesticated by already existing cultural models of parenting? How does the introduction of the mobile phone affect family life and intergenerational relationships? How does mobile contact contribute in the construction of new cultural models of “being a parent” and “being a child”? Analysing new social phenomena such as “hyperparenting” and the “dialogic use” of mobile phones, the author argues upon the role of mobile communication technologies in articulating the paradoxical nature of the contemporary cultural model of family education.

Mobile Phones in Action

2020 ◽  
pp. 94-112
Author(s):  
Christian Licoppe
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Current Development ◽  
First Line ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Sequential Organization

This chapter discusses the research-oriented toward mobile communication and done within the perspective of ethnomethodology and/or conversation analysis (EM/CA). The first line of investigation focuses on the way specific affordances of mobile devices may enable or constrain certain actions and features of the sequential organization of talk. The second one is concerned with understanding how mobile phones and the kind of on-screen resources and events they make available on the move may constitute relevant resources in the organization of activities involving co-present participants. Eventually, to take into account the multiplication of communicative functionalities and social media apps currently available on smartphones and dealing in depth with the example of video-mediated communication, the author sketches the kind of research agenda that could make mutually relevant mobile communication research and EM/CA in the context of the current development of mobile technologies and resources.

Portables, luggables, and transportables: Historicizing the imagined affordances of mobile computing

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meryl Alper
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Cell Phones ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Consumer Electronics ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
The Social ◽  
Portable Computing ◽  
History Of

This article contributes to the history of “mobile media beyond mobile phones” by accounting for genres of portable computing (or “portables”) that emerged in the late 1980s. Though largely overlooked by historians of technology, these mobile, less-than-mobile, and relatively immobile devices helped shape the social and cultural uses of contemporary mobile communication. I argue that the technological capabilities of portables altered users’ expectations for how and where computers could be incorporated into daily life, be it near bodies, on hand, or at one’s fingertips. While the market for bulky portables dwindled by the late 1990s, as laptops and cell phones became more ubiquitous, these consumer electronics are nonetheless useful today for understanding the perpetual role of materiality and embodiment in how we conceive of the imagined affordances of mobile communication technologies.

Mundane Mobile Maintenance, Entrapment, and Hyper-Coordination

2015 ◽  
pp. 108-116
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Hall ◽  
Natalie Pennington
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
Voice Calls ◽  
Global Population

This article reviews literature associated with mundane mobile maintenance, entrapment, and hyper-coordination. Licoppe and Huertin (2001) and Ling and Ytrri (2002) first noted the important role of mobile phones in users' personal relationships. Much more than a device to make voice calls, the mobile phone has become highly integrated into the everyday interactions of vast segments of the global population. But with greater connectivity comes the possibility of dependency and anxiety. The integration and domestication of mobile phones can lead to heightened expectations of interpersonal connection and availability, which may result in feelings of entrapment and guilt. By providing a foundation in the earliest research on these inter-related topics and highlighting recent key studies, this article provides a thorough background of research on this subset of mobile communication practices.

Mobile Direct Marketing

2009 ◽  
pp. 269-281
Author(s):  
Ralf Wagner ◽  
Martin Klaus
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Direct Marketing ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Mobile Telephones ◽  
Technology Applications ◽  
Marketing Actions ◽  
Potential Customers

The role of mobile terminals such as mobile telephones, or PDAs, is shifting from gadgetry to serious platforms for direct marketing actions. The ubiquitous use of these devices offers companies a perfect medium through which to promote their products and services in a personalized and interactive way. Since mobile phone users are rarely without their mobile phones, mobile electronic devices provide marketers with almost permanent contact opportunities to introduce their products directly to potential clients. Although potential customers are attracted by the promotion of appealing technologies and sophisticated products and services via mobile communication, the intended impact of this direct marketing approach is often thwarted as it is seen by some as invasive and an infringement of privacy. This chapter outlines the opportunities and challenges of mobile technology applications for direct marketing and relates mobile technologies to a scheme of tasks for successful direct marketing. The chapter concludes by highlighting examples to demonstrate ways of conducting successful mobile direct marketing.

Opportunities and Challenges of Integrating mHealth Applications into Rural Health Initiatives in Africa

2010 ◽  
pp. 704-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Mechael
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Personal Digital Assistants ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Health Initiatives ◽  
Millennium Villages Project ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Development Goals

Within the broader field of eHealth, a new sub-specialization is emerging from the dramatic uptake of mobile phones throughout the world, namely mHealth. mHealth is characterized by the use of a broad range of mobile information and communication technologies including mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and remote medical devices and sensors to support medical and public health efforts. Mobile technologies serve as an extension of existing health information and telemedicine systems as well as stand-alone support systems for health professionals and individuals within the general public. This chapter highlights the developments and trends within mHealth and how the integration of mobile technology has been used to support the Millennium Villages Project. Each of the Millennium Villages, which serve populations ranging from 5,000 to 55,000 people, are located in ten countries throughout Africa, and they have been established to illustrate how targeted interventions valued at approximately $110 USD per capita can be used to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Growing Up Wireless

2009 ◽  
pp. 455-474
Author(s):  
Letizia Caronia
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Cultural Models ◽  
Intergenerational Relationships ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter illustrates the role of the mobile phone in the rise of new cultural models of parenting. According to a phenomenological theoretical approach to culture and everyday life, the author argues that the relationship between technologies, culture, and society should be conceived as a mutual construction. As cultural artefacts, mobile communication technologies both are domesticated by people into their cultural ways of living and create new ones. How are mobile phones domesticated by already existing cultural models of parenting? How does the introduction of the mobile phone affect family life and intergenerational relationships? How does mobile contact contribute in the construction of new cultural models of “being a parent” and “being a child”? Analysing new social phenomena such as “hyper-parenting” and the “dialogic use” of mobile phones, the author argues upon the role of mobile communication technologies in articulating the paradoxical nature of the contemporary cultural model of family education.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 144-168
Author(s):  
Jun Liu
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Contention ◽  
People’S Perception ◽  
Shed Light

This chapter summarizes the implication of the embedding of mobile communication into politics in contemporary China. The political relevance of mobile technologies relies not just on their capacity for providing affordable communication to human agency and generating new mediated visibility, but the relevance of these devices also relies on their capacity to carve out new opportunities for political action, to accumulate social resources as mobilizing structures against authoritarianism, and to shape people’s perception of their (potential) political agency or political subjectivity. Whereas mobile communication technologies entail new affordances to the Chinese people who are engaging in politics, the conclusion further broadens the scope of investigation to cases of political contention beyond China in order to illustrate how and to what extent the communication-centered framework may shed light on the case beyond China to more precisely pin down the influence of ICTs on contentious collective action.

Political Protest and Mobile Communication

2020 ◽  
pp. 243-256
Author(s):  
Christina Neumayer
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Media Technologies

This chapter explores the role of mobile phones and smartphones for activists in political protest. Activist practices and modalities of organizing and coordination, identity formation and representation of political protest, production of visibility and maintenance of security may have changed as a result of the presence of these technologies. The chapter engages with this issue as a sociotechnical process at the intersection of social movement studies and (mobile) media studies. It explores the evolution of mobile media technologies and political activism and illustrates the tensions that have emerged in this interrelationship. It emphasizes the extent to which political protest has become dependent upon and constrained by mobile phones. The chapter concludes by arguing that political activism and mobile technologies are interdependent and that it is at this sociotechnical intersection that we must ask critical questions concerning the roles mobile phones play in political protest today.

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