Mobile Diary Methods in Studying Daily Family Life

This chapter introduces a mobile diary data collection tool and discusses its use in the field of family research. Although the mobile diary method is a newcomer in the field of family research, its history is rooted in the larger context of the development of methods for investigating daily life. Mobile phones offer several advantages for studying daily family dynamics: user friendliness, cost-effectiveness, the ability to capture daily emotions, interactions and significant moments, and data reliability and validity. Mobile diaries utilize various mobile phone services, including SMSs and applications, and they are increasingly used also with children. The benefits of mobile diaries in family interventions include their ability to elicit reflection and help clients to keep the aim of the intervention in mind. The future possibilities of mobile diaries in family research and interventions are discussed later in this chapter.

Religious Use of Mobile Phones

Mobile phones have had a profound impact on many aspects of contemporary life, including the practice of religion. This chapter outlines the significance of the intersection of religion and mobile phone technology. The study of religion and mobile phones is closely connected to the broader field of “digital religion,” which for nearly two decades has explored how religious individuals and communities use and respond to digital media. Scholars of digital religion have argued that religious communities and culture are increasingly being influence and shaped by digital media in notable ways, especially in relation to issues of identity, community, and authority (Campbell, 2012). These issues are also important in understanding how religious groups engage with and are influenced by mobile technologies and digital culture. The chapter begins by defining the study of mobile media and outlines the history of digital religion as a field of study. Next, it highlights three key areas of research focus in relation to religion and mobile media: the use of mobile media by religious individuals and communities, how religion has been expressed through mobile applications, and reflection on broader cultural significance of the intersection of religion and mobile phones. This leads to a discussion of emerging issues within the study of religion and mobile phones.

Mobile Phone Etiquette

The authors define mobile phone etiquette, and then summarize the academic research on the topic from its beginnings as usage in public and private spaces. We also provide tabular summaries of basic etiquette rules and inappropriate locations based on an extensive review of the consumer and trade press literature (newspaper and magazine articles, Internet web postings, and books). The authors end with suggestions for further research, a References section with 101 citations, and key articles and books that graduate students, who want to continue the research in this area, should read and study.

Divorced Coparents' Use of Communication Technology

Advancements in technology have resulted in widespread use of communication technologies, particularly in families. Most research on the use of communication technologies in families, however, has ignored family structure. Communication has been identified as a key contributor to coparental efficacy, particularly in postdivorce families, and some research indicates that coparents may rely on communication technologies to interact with one another. The limited research on divorced coparents' use of communication technology has found that coparents' use of technology may vary based upon coparental relationship quality and relevant contextual factors (e.g., repartnering of one or both coparents). Additional research is needed to understand the factors that influence coparents' decisions about communication technology and the influence of technology as means of communication on parents' and children's well-being.

Mobile Communication Tools as Morality-Building Devices

The rise of Mobile Devices (MD) in the last two decades is noteworthy not only for the unprecedented rate at which they have spread, but for the vast number of countries in which they have so quickly been adopted, blind to both culture and economic stature. Moreover, the accelerated nature of their constantly-evolving design and function adds additional layers of complexity to the already-complicated topic of behavior in public places and during face-to-face communication. Drawing on extant literature and research, this article focuses on a specific but underexplored consequence of the mobile turn in everyday communication: MDs enhance the stage dimension of the social interactions they are embedded in, and therefore elicit a moral reasoning on the rights and duties of the individual in public places. They cooperate in building the bases of intersubjectivity: a sense of the other.

The Impact of Mobile Phones on Teenagers' Socialization and Emancipation

The mobile phone has become an indispensable mean of communication in the world today, and for teenagers specifically has become de rigueur in everyday life. The eagerness of teenagers to embrace mobile devices can be associated with such devices' instrumental as well as social and expressive functions. However, these functions are intertwined with critical impacts on the interaction between teenagers and parental/peer groups. On the one hand, the mobile phone acts as a symbolic “umbilical cord” that provides a permanent channel of communication, intensifying parental surveillance. On the other hand, it creates a greater space for interaction with peers beyond parental monitoring and control. This article summarizes current research and presents an empirical example of the impact of teenagers' mobile phone communication on the dynamics of parental and peer group interactions during their socialization and emancipation from the familial sphere.

Mobile Phone: Repurposed Assistive Technology for Individuals with Disabilities

Mobile phones are a prime example of an everyday technology that can be repurposed to be an assistive technology for an individual with a disability. In-and-of-themselves as well as through their capabilities to host applications (apps), mobile phones enhance the independence of individuals with disabilities in multiple functional areas, including – but not limited to – daily living skills, communication, and navigation within one's community. This article provides readers with the current literature and considerations for using mobile phones as repurposed assistive technology for individuals with disabilities with a focus on mobiles phones for promoting independence, for use as a prompting device, and for use as an AAC device. This article stresses the lack of existing research base, but the potential of mobile phones to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities.

Keitai and Japanese Adolescents

Keitai, Japanese mobile phones, have thoroughly permeated the lives of adolescent Japanese. This article describes the connection between adolescents and keitai by discussing the ways that keitai technology has been shaped by youth, how keitai have been used by teenagers for social empowerment, and how the autonomy afforded by keitai has supported new digital creative and expressive forms. These topics are discussed through a review of the English language scholarship about keitai that first emerged in the early 2000s. This article concludes by discussing possible directions of future research.

Deaf Adolescents' Textisms

This article starts with an overview of the existing literature on mobile communication and then presents a more detailed account of the current scientific knowledge in mobile communication and deaf studies, followed by a summary of the findings from the two case studies that the author recently conducted. The first study investigated how texting was used by deaf adolescents in Japan. The second study examined text messages written by U.S. deaf adolescents. Both studies collected a small corpus of dyadic messages exchanged via cell phone between two deaf high-school students at each residential school to examine the unconventional spellings typically used in text messages, or “textisms.” The characteristics of each text-message corpus (356 messages produced by the Japanese pair, and 370 messages by the U.S. pair) were analyzed in order to explore the features of textisms adopted by these deaf adolescents.

Children, Risks, and the Mobile Internet

This article examines young people's use of smartphones, with a particular focus on opportunities and risks related to the mobile internet. Drawing on a review of mobile phones literature and internet studies, the article examines the emergence of a new research agenda in the study of children and mobile communication and outlines relevant empirical evidence of changes associated with smartphones.