Mobile phones are becoming more and more common. It is said that 1 in 2 people own one in Great Britain. My investigation will be to observe whether this widespread use of mobile phones have affected the communication habits of mobile phone users. There are two parts to my investigation. The first is an observational study, in which I will observe the various habits of mobile phone users from afar. For the second I created a questionnaire to survey a number of people on how they feel about the use of their mobiles. Being at University, it could be assumed that my representation of the public would be a group of students, and would not be very accurate. As far as I could I tried to move away from this in a number of ways. My observational study was conducted in a town centre where a good representation of the general public can be seen, and was not just a bar in a student union, for example. Also my survey was conducted on a wider scale than just a few student mates, and consisted of males and females aged 15-50.
I choose a well-placed spot to sit and watch, on a bench outside a local cinema, at which many people congregate. It was on market day, in the mid-afternoon, and so the town centre was reasonably busy. I sat for about an hour, until I began to really feel the cold. In that time a lot of people passed me, and I noted 21 instances of interest involving mobile phone use. When noting these I charted them under different headings; whether they were male or female, if they were texting or phoning, there approximate age, whether they were on there own or in a group, and whether they ignored or included the other people in the group.
Observing the people showed some interesting things. Firstly I should note that of all the people I observed using mobile phones, only one was over 30. This suggests that the middle and old aged people have not yet embraced this new technology to the same degree that the younger generations have. ¾ of the people I observed using mobiles were male. Surprisingly a lot of the time they appeared to be just checking, or holding their mobiles, and not actually using them. This contrasted with the girls I saw who I didn’t see check their mobiles once, at least in any obvious way. The girls I saw using mobiles were in groups of 2-4, whereas 1/3 of the males were alone.
Whether or not the person on the phone ignored or included the people around him gave some interesting results, which varied quite a lot. 12 of the 16 with company, males and females, ignored the people, or person around them to different degrees. In one example two guys were leaning against a wall next to me. They were both about 16. There conversation ended when one guy made a phone call. The conversation lasted about 3 minutes in which the guy on the phone was trying to meet up with some other people. The other guy was completely excluded. He appeared very uncomfortable and he did not seem to know where to look, he looked around everywhere but at his friend. I saw this happen in a lot of similar ways with people being isolated. This suggests that the mobile can to be an unsociable tool, something that can break down communication. One subject was walking through town having a phone conversation, and she had a guy with her, as far as I could tell. Both were about 15. They walked together, but she was deep in conversation, and both were completely ignoring each other, and seemed to refuse to even look in the same direction.
In the times when two or more people are excluded, they have continued their communication, and it appears to actually exclude the mobile phone user. Especially in one case I saw in which a guy was just staring down at his phone texting, completely cut off from the conversation which continued between the two others, who both were relaxed and ‘normal’, compared to the mobile user who seemed stiff and unnatural, as they walked along together.
I noticed that there seemed to be two different types of people, those who were happy to speak on their phone in public, and those who weren’t. I recorded examples of both, with approximately 1/3 seeming quite uncomfortable on the mobile. In one example I saw a guy and a girl standing together chatting in the middle of the town centre, and his phone rang, but he didn’t answer right away. He took it out and looked around, walked away from the girl to the more secluded entrance of the cinema, and answered the phone, leaning with his back against the wall. I saw a few examples of similar events whereby a person, usually with someone, would walk out of the middle of the market, and to more secluded areas, before using their mobiles.
In contrast most people seemed quite happy to walk through town talking on their mobiles. In one extreme case, a male, who seemed about 30, was walking with a female of similar age. He strode through the market, and I heard him a long way off. Not only was he very comfortable to speak loudly, but also he was very animated, and made continuous arm and head movements when speaking. Even though this looked very funny, it also looked quite natural, as if he was speaking to someone in front of him. Anon writes in a 2002 article ‘On The Mobile: Groundbreaking Global Study Explores Behavioral Effects of Mobile Phone Use’, there ‘are two distinct types of cell phone users – “innies” are quiet, discreet ad unobtrusive with their mobile phone conversations, while “outies” are louder and less concerned with the perceptions of people around them’.
When a phone rings the only response that is expected is to answer it. Donald Ball writes in his article ‘Toward a Sociology of Telephones and Telephoners’ than to “do otherwise than answer it is to risk missing a potentially important interaction” (Ball 1968, p63). I didn’t notice one time when someone’s mobile rang and they did not almost immediately take it out and answer it.
Although the observational study provides interesting data, I needed to carry out a survey to get detailed answers on how people felt about themselves and their mobiles. So I did a small-scale questionnaire survey on 26 male and female students of varying ages. I decide to split the female students into different age groups, 16-18, and 20+ to see if there was a further difference in mobile phone usage. But comparing the results showed little difference, and so decided to consider them as one group. There were 15 female subjects, and 11 male subjects who were grouped into 20-22, and 30-50 year olds. The 30-50 year olds were University lecturers, and only 1 of the 4 had a mobile phone, and this was rarely used. So backing up my observational study, there is more evidence for the theory that older people have not changed their communication habits to incorporate mobile phones as much as the younger generations.
The types of questions I asked were; how many texts do you send per day? Has owing a mobile made you more sociable? Has being accessible 24hrs/day influenced your life? From the answers I got there were many obvious differences between males and females. There was a big difference in how long women spent on their mobiles compared to the men. The average number of texts by women was 12, compared to 6/7 of males sent 4 or less/day. Women spent an average of 31minutes/day, with 2 of which spending 2 hours or more daily. The males spent an average of 20 minutes/day. Both sexes, however, would carry their mobiles around almost everywhere, and keep them switched on nearly all the time. This suggests that women feel more relaxed with their mobiles, and phone calls in general, and will spend hours chatting, whereas males tend to have quite restricted phone use. Only 4 of 15 girls mentioned mobile use in case of emergency. Emergencies, important calls, and arranging social events were the main reason for males to use their mobiles.
‘The telephone offers many women the pleasure of emotional involvement and is typically regarded as a vital connection to friends and family. Men, on the other hand, tend to treat the telephone more instrumentally or associate it with and invasion of their home space by work’
(Chandler 1994)
As I noticed in my observational study, males can be seen carrying their mobiles around with them while they walk, and sometimes just holding them out in front. I found this very strange behavior, and didn’t think too much of it, but noted it down anyway, until I researched my investigation further and found an article saying that men ‘[show] off their cell phones in public as symbols of status or even virility’. I found this very interesting that some men have unwittingly incorporated the mobile phone into a completely different tool than it was made for. It leaves me wondering if two guys were competing, would the guy with the newest mobile with the most features get the girl?
‘
Men have a tendency to display their cell phones more proudly, using them to display aggression in front of other men, and almost like a mating ritual in front of women’ (Anon 2002)
I asked people if they talked differently on the phone, compared to in person, and about half said they noticed they do. An overwhelming majority also said it was more difficult to talk on the phone, as we ‘do not see each other’s surroundings, facial expressions [or] other visual cues’ (Ball 1968, p59) and it can feel very awkward indeed. But 7 people felt that by owning a mobile they had become more comfortable speaking on the phone. By speaking more regularly they have become more familiar with phone calls, and understand its limitations, know what to expect, and how to talk. By having a mobile it is a much more direct link to the person you want to communicate with, as long as they have a mobile too. When ringing a house phone, you don’t know who will answer, and there is a fair chance that the person your contacting will not. In doing this you may also disturb, or annoy people if the person you are trying to contact is not there.
Looking through the answers I was given, it does seem that not only has there been a change in communication habits, but also in the lifestyle of the mobile phone users. A number of females answered that they feel safer with their mobiles, that they would be more willing to go out alone at night, if they have a way of calling for help. Also, this would reassure the parents of the younger students. This allows the parents to feel safer about letting them out more, to go further, and to stay out later. Therefore mobile phones give more independence and freedom to these users, and would obviously seem of great benefit to teenagers. This may explain partly why mobiles are so widespread now in young people. One girl answered that now she was accessible 24 hours a day she ‘was never lonely’. Aronson has suggested that ‘the telephone also had a psychological function in reducing loneliness and anxiety and in increasing feelings of security’ (Chandler 1994). Communication is more frequent, between mobile phone users, becoming more of an entertainment medium when you get bored than one that is limited to calls for a specific purpose. One surprise is that texting has become a main form of communication. Half of the women surveyed met up less because of texting/calling, and most of the women speak less on the phone, or in person because of texting. But as I also found the ‘more frequently people make contact by telephone the more they seem to want face-face meetings afterwards’ (Rutter 1987, p10). Also approximately half the men use texting as a way of avoiding long phone conversations. Texting was mentioned as useful when your not meant to be communicating, e.g. to friends in lectures (as one student said), or you want to keep your conversation private. Texting allows you to key in a message and send it quickly without anyone overhearing you, unlike when making a phone call. Also you can be quite discrete when texting and you don’t have to hold the phone up to your ear. In the case of communicating in lectures/school it seems to have replaced passing notes to friends.
About 1/3 of the subjects said that their mobiles have replaced other modes of communication. In nearly all of these cases the house phone is being used less, or not at all. This is probably because a mobile can be taken anywhere to make a call, and so it can be more private, also you are likely to call another mobile, or number which is stored in your phonebook. It becomes much more convenient to use than go to find a landline for the same purpose, especially when using a mobile can be cheaper. I was surprised to find that some people are using the Internet less, for chat- room communication, and emailing. This shows that at least for some people the mobile is having a big impact on the way we communicate, and our lives in general.
October 2002