Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Social impact of mobile: A survey on mobile phone perception and use in Tehran
Seyed Kamaleddin Mousavi
Saeid Asadi
Abstract
Popularity of mobile for communication has turned it to a phenomenon with
massive sociocultural effects. Regarding Apparatgeist theory, this study has
explored perception and using patterns of mobile phones in Tehran, Iran. A sample
of 600 people from 6 districts of Tehran was surveyed in order to assess: I.
Perception of mobile phone among different socio-demographic groups; and II.
Mobile use rate among different social groups whether for dialogue or SMS. The
results indicated no similarity among different social and demographic groups. In
fact, significant differences were found between men and women, employed and
unemployed, singles and marrieds in mobile use rate. In the case of perception,
findings showed similarity between men and women, employed and unemployed,
and between different educational level groups. According to the results, the
younger respondents demonstrated more expressive perception on mobile phone,
while the aged people had more instrumental attitude about mobile. The results can
explain some sociocultural behavior of residents in large urban cities in developing
countries on mobile and communication tools.
Keywords: Mobile use rate, perception, Apparatgeist, Sociocultural similarities,
Tehran, use and perception integrity.
--------------------------------------
Dr.Seyed Kamaleddin Mousavi, Assist. Professor, Department of social Science. Shahed University,
Dr.Saeid Asadi, Assist. Professor, LIS Department, Shahed University. [email protected]
Introduction
In recent years, the world has been faced with an intensive growth of ITC use by
different groups of people. Mobile phone has turned to one of the most developing
and influencing telecommunication technologies because of its unique nature where
communication, photography, games, entertainments and other features are
combined (Gaonkar et al., 2008).
In this context, in majority of developing and developed countries, mobile phone
penetration is continuously on the increase. In 2007, the number of mobile
subscriptions in the world outranked 3 billions (Ling & Donner, 2009); the trend
which is accompanied with a decreasing coverage of fixed telephones. According to
the International Telecommunication Union's 2011 Key Statistical Highlights (ITU,
2012b), the total number of subscribed mobiles reached 6 billions by the end of
2011, with 86% as average global penetration. At the same year, the number of
mobile lines exceeded the inhabitants in 105 countries. This prevalent and fast
adoption to mobile phone by people renews the memories of television and internet
receptions in the mid and in the end of 20th century respectively.
Similar to fixed line telephones which were basically developed for business
purposes by adults, mobile phones were also first marketed for business
communication by adults. However, the rapid reduction in price of mobile handsets
as well as the increase in the number of prepaid phone cards in 1990s resulted in
fast adoption of mobile technology by young people (Ling, 2003). For younger
people, mobile phone is not only a communication tool but also a sign of being
socially connected and in demand (Campbell, M., 2005).
While the statists indicate an increase in use of mobile phone technology in most
cases, enterprise adoption of mobile information and telecommunication
technologies (mICTs) has been much slower than originally anticipated. This trend
is often attributed to technological limitations, security issues, and significant
economic investments associated with implementing mICT (Deans, 2002).
In large urban areas such as Tehran, communication remains as an important issue
for the residents and local authorities and therefore, new telecommunication
technologies are always welcomed. Due to some of its attractive potentials i.e.
communication in move, perpetual contacts, easy accessibility to each other, saving
time, shortening distances and so on, mobile is an important medium for
communication in remote and urban areas.
While the interrelations between mobile and social life is rapidly on the increase,
little research has been done on social effects of mobile on urban life in developing
countries especially in Iran and especially in highly urbanized settled areas.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide an exploratory, cross-cultural
comparison of perception and use of mobile phones in Tehran in order to help
establish some bases for future researches and theory buildings.
The main questions to be answered in this paper are
1. What sociocultural aspects are important in perception of mobile technology
in Tehran?
2. What sociocultural aspects are important in use of mobile technology in
Tehran?
Accordingly, the main hypotheses of this study are:
1. There is similarity between Tehran social groups in perception toward
mobile.
2. There is similarity between Tehran social groups in mobile use rate.
The rest of this paper stands as follows. First, the penetration of mobile phone in
Iran is reviewed at a glance and then the literature and theoretical framework of the
study and research methodology are presented respectively. The results of the
research as well as the discussion are the other sections.
Mobile Phones in Iran
The second largest country in the Middle East regarding the area and population,
Iran is one of the developing countries with a large proportion of young people who
show interest in modern communication technologies including mobile phones.
Apparently, the penetration of mobile phone in Iran traces back to 1994, when for
the first time, a limited amount of mobile sets were imported to the country, and
used by some governmental administrative and officials. Gradually, mobile became
available for the people in Tehran, and then throughout the country. In the more
recent years, mobile phone subscription had an increasing growth rate in Iran.
Figure 1 shows the trend of mobile phone subscription in Iran compared with the
average rate of the subscription growth in the world. The rapid penetration of
mobile phones in Iran happened during 2006-2009 period with and in 2009 Iran
outpaced the average world growth rate. In 2011, there was only three subscribed
mobile phone per 100 people in Iran; this proportion reached 75 in 2011 yet below
global mobile penetration rate (ITU, 2012a).
Take in Figure 1 here: Number of mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people in Iran and the world, 2001-2011.
Figure 2 shows the rate of mobile phone subscription in Iran compared with
selected countries and regions in 2011. Compared to the Middle Eastern and the
developing countries, Iran has been less successful in increasing mobile phone
systems. This is also applicable compared to Turkey and South Korea, two
benchmark examples used for measuring development of Iran (ITU, 2012a).
Take in Figure 2 here: Mobile penetration rate in Iran and selected countries, 2011.
Table 1 shows the number of subscribed mobile lines in Iran and Tehran in selected
years from 1996 to 2007 (Statistical Center of Iran, 2008: 480).
Take in Table 1 here: Number of mobile phone subscriptions in Iran and Tehran, 1996-2007.
As shown in the table above, one out of four mobile subscribed in Iran belongs to
the capital city of Tehran. With more than seven million inhabitants in the city and
twelve millions in the metropolitan area, Tehran has vibrant environment for
different sociocultural groups resulted from the rich complex educational, art, sport
and economic activities available throughout the city.
Literature Review
Mobile and mobility definitions, classification and applications have been argued in
the literature. Terms such as mobile, portable and wireless have been used widely to
refer to mobile telecommunication sets in them spatiality is a common key
dimension (Kakihara & Sorensen, 2001). Basole (2004) justified three dimensions
for mobility adopted from Kakihara & Sorensen (2001) i.e. spatial, temporal and
contextual dimensions. Spatiality requires movement whether the moving item is
human, a device or both. Temporality describes that mobile communication
happens in a certain time in which normally both sender and receiver should be
available. Offline mobile messages such as SMS and MMS can be used with a lag
in time. Contextuality reflects the facts that new mobile technologies offer several
choices and the users may choose one of them each time depending on the context
and situation they dealing with (Basole, 2004).
Mobile-based information and communication technology (mICT) describes the
modern technologies in which mobility, information and telecommunication are
integrated for research, communication, entertainment and so on. mICT has several
characteristics: accessibility, reachability, connectivity, portability and localization
(Junglas & Watson, 2003). Basole (2004) categorized the main problems related to
mICT as economic, organizational and technical issues. Besides, Miklas et al.
(2007) described the main characteristics of mobile systems as a combination of
user mobility and user social interaction.
Mobile phones have also been studied in organizations and business sector. Donner
(2006) studied the effect of mobile on microentrepreneurs' networks. The results
revealed that owning mobiles is an advantage in competitive business
environments.
Mobile phone penetration rate describes the ratio of the number of active mobile
lines to the whole population in a community. A review of the literature shows that
mobile phone penetration is subject to economic condition. Donner (2008) reports
on the relation of Gross National Income (GNI) and mobile phone penetration.
Lower income countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan had 7.5 mobile phones
per 100 people in 2006. For lower middle income countries e.g. Iran and China, this
ratio reached 30.4. For upper middle countries e.g. Brazil and Turkey and high
income countries e.g. Japan and the U.S. these figures were calculated 65.8 and
100.8 respectively.
Mobile penetration may also be a response to the prices and services. Hurkens &
Jeon (2009) also studied the relation of mobile cost calculation approaches and
mobile penetration. The results indicated that retail benchmarking approach without
force termination of mobile calls will result in larger mobile phone penetration.
Townsend (2000) argues that mobile phones are relatively more popular in the
countries with lower internet access and use.
According to Castells (2004: 52), the adoption of mobile phones by different
generations and age groups may follow different patterns. While in Europe, a larger
portion of middle and older age people use mobile phones, in Japan the college
students and school students own mobile phones much more than other groups. In
general, although the original users of mobile phones were adults for business
purposes, wireless communication technologies became popular for younger
generations after a decade when cheaper handsets and subscriptions became widely
available. This research also revealed that the adoption of mobile phones by men
has been much more than women; although, women tend to send SMS more than
men.
Some new studies about sociocultural aspects of mobile phone have revealed the
important role of gender and age in mobile's adoption rate, perception and use
patterns. For example, according to some sociologists, adolescents usually tend to
consider mobile telephony as fashion, i.e. they are particularly conscious of handset
styles and tend to view the mobile phone as an article of personal display or fashion
(Ling, 2004; Alexander, 2000; Skog, 2002). Also, adolescents tend to use mobile
phone, basically for expressive purposes than instrumentally ones (Fortunati, 2002;
Harper, 2001; Ling & Yttri, 2002). Some sociologists found that males often stress
on the technological aspects of mobile phone such as: ram potential, new
equipment, power and speed etc., while females usually value “social aspects” of it
such as: design, ring tone, and color (Skog 2002).
A number of studies indicate that using mobile phone for “expressive purposes” can
demonstrate and reinforce social networks (Johnsen, 2003; Tylor & Harper, 2001).
Humphreys (2008) run a case study on Dodgeball mobile communication service.
The results showed that exchanging messages on such services can lead to social
molecularization.
In comparison of several Western European countries, Fortunati found an important
distinctions in the degree to which mobile phone was considered as a mean for
facilitating social relationships. She found that Italian- compare with French,
British, Spanish, and Germans- place the first position in this attitude. Moreover,
she reported that almost all of Western Europeans tend to adopt mobile phone more
for “personal” reasons rather than work-related reasons (Fortunati, 2002).
Some social studies have shown that in societies with high population density there
is lower tolerance for mobile phone use in public spaces, because, it is reasonable to
conclude that in more densely populated areas it is more difficult to avoid
eavesdropping on mobile conversations in public settings (Campbell, S.W, 2005:
22).
M. Campbell (2005) studied the effects of mobile phone on peer relationships
especially in young people. Functionality in social life was found to be one of the
main reasons for the youth to attract to mobile phones.
Surveys have consistently shown that young people even prefer their mobile phone
to television or the Internet (Hession, 2001). As an example, Enpocket (2005)
surveyed the importance of media tools for different social groups. The results
showed that altogether, mobile reached 19% and stood as the second popular
medium after television. However, for young people between 18 and 24 years old,
mobile appeared to be the most popular medium with 30% preference compared to
television and internet with 28% and 15% respectively. Ito (2001) claims that
adoption of mobile technologies by the youth, reflects the fact that they are
proficient in using these gadgets and fluent in texting.
Mobile technology has also been combined with GPS navigation, photography,
games, file sharing, blogging and other facilities (Shiode, 2002). Such complex
technologies have been used mainly by young people to share their life experiences
and to tag the contents they know about. Klastrup (2007) described mobile story or
mobile narration as the structured and mediated presentation of experiences with
recognizable beginning and end. This usually happens by taking photos and videos
by mobile handsets, tagging them and then sharing them with friends and family.
Based on this definition, Multisilta & Mäenpää (2008) offered a social mobile
media model in which, users could upload video clips taken by mobile phones to
create and share stories. Mixing different video stories from own and other users
was allowed in this system which could result in multi-author common storylines.
The adoption and penetration of mobile phone technology and the patterns and
sociocultural affecting mobile use have been studied broadly among different
nations e.g. Norweyan (Ling, 2000) and Japanese (Ito, 2001) cultures. Observed by
Kopomaa (1999), the high use of mobile phones in Scandinavian countries has
brought with it the challenge of understanding private vs. public environments.
Theoretical Framework
This research is mainly based on the theoretical orientation of Apparatgeist, the
concept which is developed by the contemporary sociologists James Katz and Mark
Aakhus in 2002. In an effort to conceptualize and explain some patterns of use and
adoption of mobile phone, Katz and Aakhus nurtured the concept of Apparatgeist
(Katz & Aakhus, 2002).
Apparatgeist – according to Scott Campbell- draws attention to both the meaning of
people construct for technologies and the social consequences which follow these
meanings (Campbell, S.W, 2005: 5).
Katz and Aakhus advocated balanced consideration of the social and technological
factors that shape perception and use patterns of mobile telephony. In this regard,
they identified a number of factors associated with each of these 2 arenas i.e. social
and technological. Values, norms, roles, cultural habits, network externalities,
reference groups and social context are some of social factors helping us to
understand the ways people use mobile phone. Accordingly, some of mobile's
technological aspects such as handset size, design, ease of use and media exposure
also contribute to know better how people think about the technology and how they
use it. In their outstanding work, Katz and Aakhus expanded a list of social and
technological considerations identified in their explication of Apparatgeist. They
reasoned that mobile phones provide the means for perpetual contact, and therefore,
people tend to conceptualize the technology in a coherent way. They stress that:
“…it seems that certain conceptual perspectives arise in people's minds as a result of
their interaction with technologies, and these are remarkably consistent across cultures. If
this is indeed the case, future researches should continue to detect this phenomenon…” (Katz
& Aakhus, 2002: 316).
Undoubtedly, cultural characteristics play an important role in how people make
sense of their social reality, and mobile phone is not an exception to this axiom.
Although there are notable similarities in the dissemination and appropriation of
mobile phone in different countries, recent sociological literature shows that
different cultural traits also play role in the distinct rates of mobile adoption and use
patterns.
Drawing from this line of reasoning, the main question of the present study was to
understand whether perception and uses of mobile phone are similar and convergent
among a sample of Tehran residents with different sociocultural backgrounds or
not?
Methodology
To meet the aims of this research, first, a considerable literature on the mobile's
sociocultural aspects during 1998-2012 was reviewed. Then, a social survey was
organized in order to test some of hypotheses driven from the research literature,
especially those belonging to Katz and Aakhus. Accordingly, in September 2011 -
based on Cochran sampling formula- a sample of six hundred Tehran residents was
selected from 6 distinct regions of the city i.e. districts 3, 4, 6, 11, 14 and 15.
Tehran has 22 municipal districts. Respondents were surveyed by a questionnaire
with 24 items in order to assess “mobile perception and use rate similarity” among
the citizens.
It is notable that for the items assessing perception, respondents were asked to
respond using a 5-point Likert-type scale, with choices ranging from strongly
disagree to strongly agree. Moreover, For the scales related to perception – with
multiple items- Cronbach's alpha was calculated as follows: emotional
perception=72%, socio-cultural perception=79% and instrumental perception=50%.
Similarly, Cronbach's alpha for the scale of mobile use rate was equal to 72%.
Table 2 illustrates research concepts, their dimensions, indicators and components.
Take in Table 2 here: Research concepts, dimensions, indicators and components
Research sample consisted of 50% male and 50% female. Most of respondents
(62%) were single and 56% employed. A large number of the sample composed of
15-29 years old youth, 4.2% under15, 2.7% elderly, 16% middle age people
between 30 to 40 years old, and finally, 13.8% between 40 to 60 years old. Age
average for the research sample was 28 years old - similar to the age average of the
country according to 2006 census. Regarding the educational level, it is noteworthy
that 17% of the sample composed of people with under high school educational
level, 40% of respondents were high school students or finished their high school.
Approximately 40% of respondents were undergraduate student or graduated with a
bachelor's degree. Finally, 3.7% of the sample consisted of postgraduate or PhD
students and alumni.
Results
The examination of the questionnaire with one-sample t-test indicates that the
mobile use rate – whether voice dialogue or SMS - has been significantly more than
the total average number of Tehran residents.
For the sample research, the strongest perception toward mobile phone was
considering mobile as a “medium to communicate with close friends and
companions” with the mean 3.2 (M=3.2). Other perception such as “mobile as an
instrument to control family members” with (M=2.95) and “mobile as necessary
tool to release from social isolation” with (M=2.93) placed on the next positions
respectively. It is interesting to note that “mobile as a mean to display personality or
show the self” with the mean score of 2 (M=2) has been the weakest attitude toward
mobile phone.
In order to examine the "similarity of perception and attitudes toward mobile
phone", it was necessary to compare the mean scores of different social groups in
the research sample. Normal distribution of groups' scores, and the equal variances
between the scores of the groups in the sample allowed us to use parametric
statistics. Taking advantage of some parametric tests like: t-test and ANOVA, the
mean scores of different groups were compared. Table 3 and Table 4 illustrate
related scores (mean, standard deviation, t-student, df, significance) of mobile
perception and use rate among different social groups of the sample.
Take in Table 3 here: Results of t-test about perception- attitudes toward mobile.
According to Table 3, comparison of the scores related to different kinds of
perception and attitudes toward mobile phone reveals some similarities between
men and women as well as employed and unemployed residents. It means that
gender or employment had no impact on the perception or attitudes about mobile
phone.
Meanwhile, the table above shows significant differences between the perception of
single and married respondents toward mobile phone. The results of the research
indicate that respondents from the single group had significantly more expressive or
sociocultural and emotional perception to mobile phone than respondents from the
married group. Conversely, the married group demonstrated more instrumental
attitudes and perception about mobile phone.
Moreover, the results of t-test among different groups of the research sample shows
that there is no similarity between them in the case of mobile use rate. This fact is
demonstrated in Table 4.
Take in Table 4 here: Results of t-test about mobile Use Rate.
As the table 4 shows, it seems that not only there is no similarity but also the
significant differences exist between men and women, employed and unemployed,
singles and marrieds, in the case of mobile use rate. In this regard, respondents from
the single group used mobile and SMS significantly more than the respondents from
the married group. The same results took place for men in comparison to women.
At the same time, general rate of mobile use among the employed respondents was
significantly more than the unemployed ones, although the unemployed group used
SMS more than employed ones.
Furthermore, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine
the effects of age and education on two dependent variables i.e. mobile perception
and mobile use rate. It is noteworthy that the ANOVA score (F) for mobile use and
mobile perception was significant among different age groups, while, among the
educational groups, the ANOVA score (F) on mobile perception and use rate was
not significant (P>.05). Table 5 illustrates the results of ANOVA tests on mobile
use and perception rates with regarding different age groups.
Take in Table 5 here: Results of ANOVA test on mobile use and perception rates.
According to the table 5, different age groups were different in mobile use rate, and
they had dissimilar attitudes/perception about mobile phone too. It means that
belonging to a special age group” may influence on perception and attitude toward
mobile and may affect its rate of use. While, belonging to an educational group – as
revealed before -has no impact on mobile's attitude or use rate.
In order to determine that, which age group differed significantly from each other,
some follow-up post hoc analyses were conducted for the age groups scores
consisted of pairwise comparisons, using Scheffé's and Tukey's tests. Post hoc tests
for the mobile perception and attitudes revealed significant differences between the
youths and two older age groups i.e. 30-40, and 41-60 years old groups. Among the
youths, emotional attitude on mobile is significantly stronger than that of middle
range age (30-40 years) or older (41-60 years) groups. According to post hoc tests,
in both cases, Mean Difference scores (MD= .81, MD= 1.7) favor the youth.
Surprisingly, as the age increases, the intensity of emotional perception among
respondents decreases. For example, among youth, the emotional attitudes on
mobile phone has been stronger than among “middle rang age group”, and among
the middle range age group it was stronger than 41-60 years old group, and among
41-60 years old group it has been stronger than aged ones (61-80 years old group).
These findings show that, the youth - more than the older age groups - consider
their mobile phones as a sociocultural and emotional or expressive instrument.
However, results of Tukey's test showed that among aged people (60-80 years old),
instrumental perception and attitudes toward mobile has been significantly stronger
than the two younger age groups. It means that the less age, the less instrumental
attitudes toward mobile phone and conversely, the more age, the more instrumental
attitudes toward mobile.
In the case of general use rate of mobile, post hoc tests indicated significant
differences (p<.001) between the youth and two other age groups i.e. 30-40 and 41-
60 years old groups. Analyzing the man differences (MD) scores between youth and
two older age groups respectively (MD= 1.58, MD= 2.2), leads us to conclude that
the youth in Tehran significantly use their mobiles more than what the older ages
do.
In the case of mobile use rate for dialogue, Scheffé's tests showed a significant
difference between the youth and the middle-range age group (30-40 years old).
According to the results (MD=.62 , P< .039), the youth in Tehran use mobile for
dialogue significantly more than the middle-range age groups do.
In the case of mobile use rate for sending SMS, both Scheffé's and Tukey's tests
reported significant differences between the youth and all other age groups. All of
the scores of the mean differences were significant (P<.05) and they favor the
youth. Indeed, the youth groups use their mobiles significantly more than other age
groups for sending SMS messages too.
Conclusion
The results of the present study may be interpreted in the context of some theories
in sociological literature. Occasionally, the similarities and convergences on how
Tehran residents perceive and use their mobile phones can be viewed through the
lens of Apparatgeist. The theoretical orientation of Apparatgeist helps us bring into
focus the interplay between social and technological characteristics that plays
important role in coherent patterns of “mobile use and perception” in dissimilar
social groups. Similarities in perception and attitudes toward mobile phone revealed
here between men and women, employed and unemployed, and different
educational level groups, may be interpreted in the shadow of Apparatgeist theory.
At the same time, research findings also showed some significant differences in the
case of mobile use rate between men and women, employed and unemployed,
singles and married ones, and different age groups.
These findings are in contrast with the general idea of Katz and Aakhus (2002)
about gradually uniformation of mobile use patterns, while they stress a new and
different trend in Tehran in comparison with the prevalent trend in industrialized
countries' capitals. Moreover, the results of the research acknowledge a more
expressive attitude of the youths toward mobile phone. Significantly more than
other age groups, Tehran youths had more sociocultural and emotional perception
about mobile phone use than the other groups. On the contrary, instrumental
attitude toward mobile phone is very strong among the aged citizens in Tehran,
especially for those who are above 60 years old. The most notably point is that
mobile phone is rarely considered as a mean for self-presentation in public space.
This research studied some socio-demographic characteristics of mobile use and
perception in different social groups of Tehran, a metropolitan capital of a
developing country. More work is needed to compare these social attitudes in
different communities e.g. in urban and rural areas or in developed and developing
countries.
Resources
Alexander, P.S. (2000). Teens and mobile phones growing-up together: Understanding the reciprocal influences on the development of identity. Paper presented at the Wireless World Workshop, University of Surrey.Basole, R.C. (2004). "The Value and Impact of Mobile Information and Communication Technologies". In Proceedings of the 2004 IFAC Symposium, Atlanta, GA.
Campbell, M. (2005). "The impact of the mobile phone on young people’s social life". In the proceedings of the Social Change in the 21st Century Conference, Brisbane.
Campbell, S.W. (2005). A Cross – Cultural Comparison of Perception and Uses of Mobile telephony. Michicgan: University of Michigan.
Castells, M. (2004). "The Mobile Communication Society: A cross-cultural analysis of available evidence on the social uses of wireless communication technology". International Workshop on Wireless Communication Policies and Prospects: A Global Perspective, held at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Deans, C. (2002). Global Trends and Issues for Mobile/Wireless Commerce. In Proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Paper 327.
Donner, J. (2006). "The Use of Mobile Phones by Microentrepreneurs in Kigali, Rwanda: Changes to Social and Business Networks". Information Technologies and International Development, 3(2): pp.3-19.
Donner, J. (2008). "Research Approaches to Mobile Use in the Developing World: A Review of the Literature". The Information Society, 24 (3).
Enpocket (2005). Mobile media monitor survey. Retrieved 7 Sep 2012 from: http://www.cellular-news.com/story/13286.php
Fortunati, L. (2002). "Italy: Stereotypes, True and False", In J. Katz and M. Aakhus (eds.) Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, pp. 42-62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gaonkar, S. et al. (2008). Micro-Blog: Sharing and Querying Content Through Mobile Phones and Social Participation. In MobiSys’08, June 17–20, 2008, Breckenridge, Colorado, USA.
Humphreys, L. (2008)."Mobile Social Networks and Social Practice: A Case Study of Dodgeball". Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13: 341–360.
Hurkens, S. and Jeon, D-S. (2009). "Mobile Termination and Mobile Penetration," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 777.09.
Ito, M. (2001). "MOBILE PHONES, JAPANESE YOUTH AND THE RE-PLACEMENT OF SOCIAL CONTACT". In Proceedings of Annual Meeting for the Society for the Social Studies of Science.
ITU (2012a). The World in 2011: ICT Facts and Figures. Available at: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/facts/2011/material/ICTFactsFigures2011.pdf
ITU (2012b). Key statistical highlights: ITU data release June 2012. Available at: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/material/pdf/2011%20Statistical%20highlights_June_2012.pdf
Johnsen, T.E. (2003). The social context of the mobile phone use of Norwegian teens. In J. Katz (Ed.), Machines that become us: The social context of communication technology (pp. 161-170), New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Junglas, I. A., & Watson, R. T. (2003). U-Commerce: A Conceptual Extension of E- and M-Commerce.Paper presented at the International Conference on Information Systems, Seattle, WA.
Kakihara, M., & Sorensen, C. (2001). "Expanding th mobility concept". ACM SIGGROUP Bulletin,22(3), pp. 33-37.
Katz, J.E. and Aakhus, M.A. (eds.). (2002). Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Klastrup, L. (2007). Telling & Sharing? Understanding Mobile Stories & Future of Narratives. In 7th International Digital Arts and Culture Conference, Perth, Australia 15-18th September.
Kopomaa, T. (1999). Speaking Mobile: Intensified Everyday Life, Condensed City Observations on the Meaning and Public Use of Mobile Phones in Helsinki. Presented in Cities in the Global Information Society Conference. Newcastle Upon Tyne, November.
Ling, R. (2000). “We will be reached: The use of mobile telephony among Norwegian youth”. Information Technology and People, 13 (2): 102-120.
Ling, R. (2003). Fashion and vulgarity in the adoption of the mobile telephone among teens in Norway. In L. Fortunati, J. E. Katz and R. Riccini (Eds.). Mediating the human body: Technology, communication and fashion (pp. 93-102). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Ling, R. (2004). The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone’s Impact on Society. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufman Publishers.
Ling, R. and B. Yttri (2002). "Hyper-coordination via Mobile Phones in Norway", In J. Katz and M. Aakhus (eds.) Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, pp. 139-69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ling, R. and Donner, J. (2009). Mobile Communication. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
Miklas, A.G. et al. (2007). Exploiting social interactions in mobile systems. In the Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Ubiquitous computing (UbiComp'07), LNCS 4717, Springer-Verlag. pp. 409–428.
Multisilta, J. & Mäenpää, M. (2008). Mobile Video Stories. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Digital Interactive Media in Entertainment and Arts. Athens, Greece,September 10 - 12. DIMEA '08, vol. 349. ACM, New York, NY, pp. 401-406.
Shiode, N. (2002). The impact and penetration of location-based services. Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (UCL), London, UK.
Skog, B. (2002). Mobiles and the Norwegian Teen: Identity, Gender, and Class", in J. Katz and M. Aakhus. Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, pp. 255-73. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Statistical Center of Iran. (2008). Statistical Yearbook of 2007: P. 480. Tables no. 11-39. Tehran: SCI Press. (text in Persian)
Taylor, A.S., & Harper, R. (2001). Talking ‘activity’: Young people and mobile phones. CHI 2001 Workshop: Mobile communications: Understanding users, adoption, and design, Seattle, WA.
Townsend, A.M. (2000). “Life in the real-time city: mobile telephones and urban metabolism”. Journal of Urban Technology. 7(2): 85-104.
Table 1: Number of mobile phone subscriptions in Iran and Tehran, 1996-2007.
200720062005200420032001199624 50971415 3852898 5105135 0756783 4498762 08735359 967Iran6 6598404 9014913 4899792 0558491 4352981 15221349 199Tehran
Table 2: Research concepts, dimensions, indicators and components.
QuestionsComponentsDimentionsConcepts Questions No. 6,7,811,12-Total time of using in a day
- Number of calling to others- Number of received calls- Number of sending SMS - Number of received SMS
- Low rate
- Middle & Normal rate
- High rate
MobileUse Rate
Questions No. 15-4,15-8, 15-9
Questions No. 15-3,15-5, 15-7
Questions No. 15-1,15-6, 15-10
- For needs & necessities, Spending free time, Asking help in dangers.
- To acknowledge social circumstances, easing social relations & interactions, Controlling relatives, kids
- Display personality and Identity, As a close friend, to escape from isolation
- Instrumental
- Sociocultural
- Emotional
Mobile Perception
Table 3: Results of t-test about perception-attitudes toward mobile.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Males Females M SD M SD df t sig.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Emotional Attitude 8.2 2.7 8 2.7 596 -.955 .340 Socio-cultural Attitude 8.7 2.3 8.7 2.1 597 -.266 .790 Instrumental Attitude 9.1 2.2 9.4 1.8 596 -1.9 .058---------------------------- Unemployed----------- Employed ---------------------------------------Emotional Attitude 8.2 2.8 8 2.6 595 1.3 .195Socio-cultural Attitude 8.8 2.3 9 2.3 595 .7 .514 Instrumental Attitude 9.1 2 9.3 2.1 594 .9 .367 -------------------------------Singles ----------------Married ---------------------------------------Emotional Attitude 8.5 2.8 7.5 2.5 595 4.1 .000Socio-cultural Attitude 8.9 2.2 8.4 2.3 594 2.2 .027 Instrumental Attitude 9 2 9.6 2 594 -3.5 .000
Table 4: Results of t-test about mobile Use Rate.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Males Females M SD M SD df t sig.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------General Use Rate 9.1 2.2 7.9 1.8 598 4.4 .000Using Rate for Dialogue 5.5 2.1 4.5 1.8 596 6.5 .000 Using Rate for SMS 3.5 1.5 3.4 1.5 598 .648 .000 ---------------------------Unemployed ---------- Employed --------------------------------------- General Use Rate 8.3 3.2 8.9 3.3 593 -2.13 .034Using Rate for Dialogue 4.6 1.9 5.5 2 590 -5.13 .000 Using Rate for SMS 3.6 1.6 3.3 1.5 593 2.27 .024 ------------------------------ Singles----------------Married ----------------------------------------General Use Rate 9.2 3.3 7.8 3.1 593 4.6 .000Using Rate for Dialogue 5.1 2 4.8 2 590 2 .043 Using Rate for SMS 3.8 1.6 2.8 1.3 593 7.7 .000
Table 5: Results of ANOVA test on mobile use and perception rates.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dependent Variables ANOVA scores & df Sig.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PerceptionsI. Emotional Attitude F(3, 577) = 8.8 .000II. Socio-cultural Attitude F(3, 576) = 2.43 .064*III. Emotional Attitude F(3, 575) = 4.8 .003
Use RateI. General Use Rate F(3, 575) = 15.7 .000II. Use for Dialogue F(3, 572) = 4.5 .004III. Use for SMS F(3, 575) = 34.4 .000-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
