Social Implications of Mobile Communication

1. Social Implications ofMobile Communication Kerry Bodine Isabella Fung Neema Moraveji

2. Overview • General Trends • Fastest Growing Population • Smart Mobs • Mobile Gaming

3. Time • When is somebody considered late? • Time is ‘softened’, blurred • Micro-coordinate schedules with others • “I’m at the mall now, where are you?” • Don’t have to set aside time & place for communication • Enables other activities, talk on-the-go

4. Space • Public and private boundaries change • e.g., one person at home, one in restaurant • Physical space vs. Virtual space • Norms in one space != norms in other space • Social conflict • e.g. Driving • Trade-off: leash or freedom? • Direct correlation: phone use , tolerance • Britain: 45% of age 24+ say ban phone in public • Compare to only 25% under age 24

5. Linguistics • Subculture grew out of business models of cell operators • Pricing models created demand for new language • Generation Text creates a teen-only zone • 80%+ of age 45+ have never sent SMS (global users) • Permeates into “real life” • Dictionary Co’s published SMS dictionaries • Jeep Cherokee used “A4X4DABLE” in advertisement

6. The Elderly Population • 2000 figure represents a 12% increase over 1990. US elderly population in millions

7. What this Market Means to Us • Improve quality of life through increased security & autonomy • Social Isolation • Being Lost • Needing Assistance • By 2007, people age 50+ willaccount for 25% of all onlineretail spending Sources: Jupiter & www.seniornet.org

8. What’s Happening Around Us? Communication + Computation ------------------------ Cooperation + Ubiquity ------------------------ Social Revolution

9. “Smart Mobs” Dynamic cooperation over geographical distances

10. The “Battle of Seattle”: 12/99 • Protestors coordinatedspontaneously anddynamically with: • SMS en masse • mobile phones (voice) • email from laptop PCs • PDAs on the net • Protestors maintained organizational continuity • Without Smart Mob ‘swarming’ tactics, just a mob

11. Smart Mob Models • p2p: location-sensitive buddy list (ImaHima.com) • Master/Slave: 1 million total, tens of thousands within an hour of first SMS volleys (protests) • Examples • Smart, Dynamic, Real Communities (Upoc.com) • Dynamically solve trafficcongestion among peoplein cars • Distributed computing:ad-hoc supercomputer

12. Next mCommerce Goldmine: Games • Worldwide Revenue Forecast in 2005 Mobile gaming: $5 billion or 23% Total Mobile Commerce Revenue: $22.2 billion • In 2005, 80% of US and Europe wireless phone users will play online games on wireless devices (200 million people) Sources: Jupiter Research, Yankee Group

13. Gaming Trends Single-player, arcade-style Multi-player, interactive & social • Japan, Korea, HK, Taiwan, Scandinavia • What’s common about these? 2.5/3G networks • Why multiplayer gaming? • Increased interaction with friends, new and old • Engaging games involving long-term contact • Look at PC gaming industry trend to multiplayer • SimCity & EverQuest moving to mobile phones

14. Gaming Business Models Airtime minutes(carriers) +Flat-fee Subscription($1 - $4 per 30 days) + Pay-per-Play -------------------------- $5 billion by 2005

15. “Gladiator” by Jamdat • One of the most successful mobile apps • 850,000 people, 10 million minutes after 1 year • ‘Hooked’ users & casual users

16. Gladiators & Pirates

17. Psychological Implications of Social Gaming • Anthropomorphism of device • “We’re like buddies” • Removes sense of displacement: • Rather than becoming a character, the person actually represents himself in a mobile game • Local confrontation • If someone loses, he might lose his temper and seek revenge

18. Questions?

19. References • Mobile Junkies Reshaping Society? http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55561,00.html • Euro Teens Understand This http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,53659,00.html • Tiny Cell Phone or Big Brother? http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,57040,00.html • Configuring the Mobile User: Sociological and Industry Views http://link.springer-ny.com/link/service/journals/00779/bibs/1005002/10050146.htm • Mobile Telephony in a Connected Life http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=504732 • Going Wireless: Behavior & Practice of New Mobile Phone Users. http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~palen/Papers/cscwPalen.pdf • The computer for the 21st Century. Mark Weiser, Scientific American 1991. http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~cfchen/readings/pvc/computer-for-21-century.pdf • The Second-Order Effects of Wireless. Alan Cooper, April 2001. http://www.cooper.com/newsletters/apr01/second_order_effects_of_wireless.htm • Universal Access to Mobile Telephony as a Way to Enhance the Autonomy of Elderly People http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=564551 • The Texting Ritual: Text-messaging and the social significance of mobile plan use http://mobile-phone-shops-uk.com/news/texting-mobile-phone-use-181202.html • Europes teens lead the Texting wave http://www.sunspot.net/technology/custom/pluggedin/bal-pl.euroteens16jan16,0,79714.story?coll=bal%2Dpe%2Dpluggedin • The Social Consequences of Mobile Telephony http://members.aol.com/leshaddon/Framing.html • Smart Mobs http://www.smartmobs.com • Pirates! Using the Physical World as a Game Board, Staffan Bjork, Jennica Falk, Rebecca Hansson, Peter Ljungstrand • Mobile Commerce Projections http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,290409,00.html • Mobile gaming market to hit $5 billion mark by 2006 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2086026,00.html • Multiplayer – the Only Mobile Game http://www.thefeature.com/article.jsp?pageid-26917 • Carriers Make Full-Court Press for the Teen Market http://www.mcommercetimes.com/Indusry/258 • Handango Launches Mobile Gaming http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/printer/18176 • Playtime http://www.business2.com/articles/web/print/0,1650,43129,00.html • Sweet Sixteen for AT&T Wireless’ New mMode series and nGame • http://industry.java.sun.com/javanews/stories/story2/0,1072,46041,00.html