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September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Digiplay 3Emotion and Mobile Phones
Leisure constraints, entitlement, and access to technologies of leisure
Jane Vincent Research Fellow [email protected]
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
What is DWRC?
• The Digital World Research Centre is a research organisation working within the School of Human Sciences comprising a multi-disciplinary social science research team
– psychologists – sociologists– economists
• The DWRC seeks to understand people in the digital world
– Investigate the relationships between people, society and digital technologies
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Emotion and Mobile Phones
• This is about the affect of the use of mobile phones and not the device itself
• It poses questions, offers ideas and opens doors for further study
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Contents
1. Some insights from empirical research2. Emotion and mobile phones– what
does this mean?3. Exploring the senses our mobile phone
triggers4. What might this mean for leisure
constraints, entitlement and access to technologies of leisure?
5. Summary and ideas for the future
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Empirical research - background• Two studies by DWRC led by Jane
Vincent and published by the funding body the UMTS Forum on their web site www.umts-forum.org1. Social Shaping of UMTS: Preparing the 3G
Customer J. Vincent and R. Harper UMTS Forum Report No. 26 2003
2. Informing suppliers about user behaviours to better prepare them for their 3G/UMTS customers J. Vincent and L. Haddon UMTS Forum Report No. 34 2004
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Research Subjects• Study 1
• 50+ questionnaires and 10 focus groups in each of the UK and Germany* comprising people using their mobile phone primarily for business or for personal purposes
• Study 2• Diaries, interviews, shadowing and questionnaires for 3
generations of 3 families, 3 businesses and 3 individuals
• Both Studies held workshops and interviews with industry experts and leading academics throughout the duration of the research
*conducted by the University of Erfurt
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Emotion and Mobile Phones – what does this mean?
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Many people have an emotional attachment to their mobile phone• People feel emotional about the
information contained on and delivered via their mobile phone
• It’s not about the device itself but rather what it enables them to do
• They have come to depend on it - at times too much
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
People respond differently to their mobile depending on how it is used• ‘Person to person’ connectivity
services engender emotion• ‘Person to WWW data’ does not
achieve the same emotional value• Current size supports constant
carrying around - “it never leaves you”
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
They use their mobile to behave emotionally and in irrational ways• They constantly call their partner/spouse
even in the same house• “I just feel the need to”
• They use the mobile impetuously• “I just had to call someone”
• Even when they know they should not they use it• “like when I am driving in the fast lane”
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
They have come to depend on their mobile phones – at times too much• “We’d agreed she’d give her old phones to her younger
brother; I found out later that she hadn’t been doing this but had been keeping them under her pillow – the text messages and the calls to boyfriends on these phones were so precious to her that she couldn’t bear to think of her brother using the phones”
• “We met at an event set up via an online discussion group”• “My wife likes to call me on the mobile – she’d be lost if I
didn’t have it and she uses hers all the time” • The mothers in particular found they were talking more to
friends “I love it because we are not restricted”. • “We often have panic situations – when the battery runs
down”
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
People think the mobile phone helps them enjoy life more• They think the mobile phone helps them enjoy
their life more• “But it’s not changed who I am”
• They think that the mobiles are important• “But might be getting too dependent on them”
• The importance is so great it makes the mobile “too valuable”• “I don’t take it to the club cause it would be terrible if I
lost it”
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Few people think about their mobile in emotional terms • Few people use the term emotion to describe their
relationship with mobiles• “It’s a funny way of putting it’
• But • People use their mobile to achieve personal (emotional)
goals • Most people use emotional language categories to explain
their mobile usage• Panic; need; desire; anxiety; ’being cool’; irrational
behaviours; thrill
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
These emotions are triggered by our senses
• Where is your mobile phone now?• Using a mobile phone involves
engagement with more senses than are usually employed to communicate• Seeing• Hearing• Touching
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Most people are affected by mobile phone use • Our senses are invaded by
manifestations of social practices in relation to mobile phone use
• Our autopoiesis is impacted by our own and other’s use of mobile phones
• Our lives are inextricably linked with those of others via our mobile phones
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Emotion has implications for the design of mobile products
• There is a very high emotional value placed on what mobiles currently enable
• The mobile phone is not like other ICT devices • People will pay whatever it costs (though they may
complain about it) for person-to-person connectivity that engenders emotion
• A value paradox can result as mobiles become too valuable to lose
• Person to information communications might not achieve the same emotional and thus social value
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Some questions for further study• Will person to person
communication always take precedence over all other ICT use?
• Will people resist or welcome the invasion of our mobile phone space by this burgeoning product repertoire?
September 2004Digital World Research Centre
Summary
• Many people are emotionally attached to their mobile phones and all that they engender
• People’s senses are invaded by our constant connectivity and attachment to mobile phones
• Implications for leisure are yet to be fully understood but beware of a backlash if the activity invades the personal and intimate space engendered by the mobile phone
