Where's the phone? A study of Mobile Phone Location in Public Spaces (original) (raw)
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A cross culture study on phone carrying and physical personalization
… of the 2nd international conference on …, 2007
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The development of mobile phones has largely increased human interactions. Whilst the use of these devices for communication has received significant attention, there has been little analysis of more passive interactions. Through census data on casual social groups, this work suggests a clear pattern of mobile phones being carried in people’s hands, without the person using it (that is, not looking at it). Moreover, this study suggests that when individuals join members of the opposite sex there is a clear tendency to stop holding mobile phones whilst walking. Although it is not clear why people hold their phones whilst walking in such large proportions (38% of solitary women, and 31% of solitary men), we highlight several possible explanation for holding the device, including the need to advertise status and affluence, to maintain immediate connection with friends and family, and to mitigate feelings related to anxiety and security.
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Mobility is changing the ways people routinely behave in public places. Since the appearance of digital mobile phone networks, mobile phones have become part of suburban and urban landscapes globally. Both the use of public transport and mobile telecommunications are integral for daily life and self‐presentation in most large cities such as London and Tokyo. Public places and spaces are being transformed into hybrid geographies through the introduction of new spatial infrastructure. In this paper, we present our analysis of the responses of our survey sample of commuters concerning their use of mobile phones on trains.
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This paper underscores the centrality of individual technological devices, particularly mobile phones, in structuring contemporary social interaction in public spaces. It illustrates the need to re-think the relationship between information and communications technologies and practices of sociability in public spaces. Based on surveys of users of mobile phones (basic mobile phones and smartphones), we explore the practices and actions of subjects in public spaces. Empirical analysis shows that the use of mobile phones and, particularly, smartphones, is gradually modifying the normative constraints associated with place and social codes, simultaneously enhancing both a sense of freedom and estrangement. Based on our findings, the paper suggests the concept of portable private-personal territory to better understand the personal space individuals develop with the support of technology. Finally, the paper concludes with a reflection on the future implications of portable private-personal territories for public spaces and cities.
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Portable Objects in Three Global Cities: The Personalization of Urban Places
The Reconstruction of Space and Time, 2017
The mobile phone has become the central node of the ensemble of portable objects that urbanites carry with them as they negotiate their way through information-rich global cities. This paper reports on a study conducted in Tokyo, Los Angeles, and London where we tracked young professionals' use of the portable objects. By examining devices such as music players, credit cards, transit cards, keys, and ID cards in addition to mobile phones, this study seeks to understand how portable devices construct and support an individual's identity and activities, mediating relationships with people, places, and institutions. Portable informational objects reshape and personalize the affordances of urban space. Laptops transform cafés into personal offices. Reward and membership cards keep track of individuals' use of urban services. Music players and mobile devices colonize the in-between times of waiting and transit with the logic of personal communications and media consumption. Our focus in this paper is not on the relational communication that has been the focus of most mobile communication studies, but rather on how portable devices mediate relationships to urban space and infrastructures. We identify three genres of presence in urban space that involve the combination of portable media devices, people, infrastructures, and locations: cocooning, camping, and footprinting. These place-making processes provide hints to how portable devices have reshaped the experience of space and time in global cities. 1. An initial interview, including a survey of everything participants were carrying in their car, pockets, bags, wallets, etc. Conceptual Framework Research on mobile phone use has thus far focused on interpersonal communication rather than impersonal or transactional social exchanges. One of the most significant technosocial changes heralded by the mobile phone was the shift in the locus of remote communication away from location-based networking to person-based networking. Reflecting this, study of mobile communications has tended to focus on a specific device-the mobile phone-and a specific set of activities-personal communication. What are the implications for interpersonal relationships and interactions when communication is channeled through a personal communications device? Research in a variety of locations around the world has documented the implications of this shift for
Alteringwalking behaviour in the era of smartphones
2019
Smartphones have become an ordinary accompanier of our walks and created new modes of appropriation of public space. This study aims to research these modes by observing the altering visual attention and walking behavior of people using smartphones in public space, and in this way, to reveal the emergence of different types of post-flâneurs. In order to address these aims, 346 (195 females, 151 males) smartphone users were observed in a central public square in Ghent, Belgium for seven days in 10-minute time intervals. Each person's gender, age, number of accompanies and their dominant mode of smartphone usage(s) were identified. Afterward, each person's walking timeline was organized into seconds and coded according to their focus of visual attention in 24 different modes which grouped under the three gaze types; visual attention on the environment, on the environment through the smartphone screen, and on the smartphone screen. Results of the descriptive statistics, multiva...
Urban Studies, 2014
This paper underscores the centrality of individual technological devices, particularly mobile phones, in structuring contemporary social interaction in public spaces. It illustrates the need to re-think the relationship between information and communications technologies and practices of sociability in public spaces. Based on surveys of users of mobile phones (basic mobile phones and smartphones), we explore the practices and actions of subjects in public spaces. Empirical analysis shows that the use of mobile phones and, particularly, smartphones, is gradually modifying the normative constraints associated with place and social codes, simultaneously enhancing both a sense of freedom and estrangement. Based on our findings, the paper suggests the concept of portable private-personal territory to better understand the personal space individuals develop with the support of technology. Finally, the paper concludes with a reflection on the future implications of portable private-personal territories for public spaces and cities.