broege - social networks

Social Networks and the Useof Mobile Phones IN NEW ZEALAND, GERMANY, AND THE UNITED STATES

Stephanie Broege <stephanie.broege@otago.ac.nz>Department of Film, Media & Communication, U of Otago

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTER MEDIATED SOCIAL NETWORKING, ICCMSN 2008

NZ – mobile subscriber growth

0

500000

1000000

1500000

2000000

2500000

3000000

3500000

4000000

4500000

5000000

1 2 3 4 5 6 72003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

11 %

16 %

17 %

8 %

12 % 3 % 2 %

Source: 2008 New Zealand - Mobile & Broadband Overview & Analysis Reporthttp://www.chinaccm.com 2007-12-12 12:19

overview

• Perpetual contact

• Permanent availability

• How about going without a phone for 48h?

• Nomophobia & disconnect anxiety

• We suffer without communication

overview 2

• Exploiting the (memory) space

• Social success linked to phone book entries

• Increased selectivity in choosing friends

• Maintaining large networks increases social support from

members.

• “(mobile phone users) choose the person who most closely

satisfies their preference at any given moment.” (Puro,

2002:124)

the research project 2006

multi-method comparative approach

Multi-Method

Comparative

Quantitative Mobile MediaSurvey Online and Offline

New Media Survey

Qualitative Focusgroup Interviews Person-Person Interv/s

Qualitative& Quant. Mobile Social Networks

New Zealand Quantitative Qualitative

USA Quantitative

Germany Quantitative Qualitative

sample 2006

• Quantitative data: P&P survey, N=418 students in New Zealand, the US, and Germany

• Qualitative data: collected from 4 focus group interviews (N=33), mobile network exercise (N=16)

• Age: Ø 22 years (min=18, max=28)

dimensions of findings

1. Preferred medium to communicate

2. Text Messaging

3. Attitude towards text messaging

4. Gender-specific social networking

medium for contacting friends (in %)

77

510

3 4

19

3034

5 65

68

13 128

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

TextMessaging

Cell Phone Landline Email InstantMessaging

New Zealand Germany USAN=170 N=160 N=88

text messaging

I believe it may be rather hard to be a student at

Otago today without a cell phone as most social

relationships are maintained via cell phones not only

with friends but also for group work and last minute

changes to meeting times and places.

(Claudine, University of Otago)

“

”

SMS sent and received per average month

575

241

54

459

265

40

647

220

61

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

OtagoUniversity

New York CityUniversity

LeipzigUniversity

female

male

total

(N=143)

(N=146)

(N=60)

text messaging

3.95

3.7

3

4.2

3.9

3.6

0 1 2 3 4 5

Otago University

New York CityUniversity

LeipzigUniversity

female

male

I strongly disagree <<<<< neutral >>>>> I strongly agree

(N=147)

(N=75)

(N=155)

Ø attitude towards cell phone use

number of cell phone contacts

Number of contacts in cell phone vs. no. of contacts in use

115

75

86

90

97

97

24

15

16

15

1815

Otago University

New York CityUniversity

Leipzig University

female

male

female

male

17%19%

21%18%

20%

15%

GER

USA

NZ

Run No. Gender

Friend (in town, on campus)

Friend (in home

town, OE)

Family (close family)

Network Assignment of <insert Name>

Part 1

Person

network exercise

CODING SCHEME

Description Code Number Label

Nr insert running number for mobile contact, ie. 1,2,3,4,5, ... (dont type in the mobile phone number)

Gender 1 male(gender of holder of mobile number) 2 female

3 organization (numbers like, video store, movie theatre, ticket hotline, etc.)

Person 1 Friend (on campus, in town)(who is the holder of mobile number) 0 1-yes, 0-no

1 Friend (in home town, abroad etc.)0 1-yes, 0-no1 Family (close family)0 1-yes, 0-no1 Relative0 1-yes, 0-no1 Classmate0 1-yes, 0-no1 Flatmate (or mate from hall, etc.)0 1-yes, 0-no1 Organization (numbers like, video store, movie theatre, ticket hotline, etc.)0 1-yes, 0-noPart 2: Social Network Drawing

Part 1: Characteristics of Phone Book Entry

Connection to family and friend network Text preferred

Landline & Email use in addition to MP

Active versus passiv ties

Location of network

Network structure

mobile social relationships

example of female social network

example of female social network

2 20

19 5

16 412

3

1 Brett 1310

11 14 186

Organisation 17 15male 7female 9self

8

example of male social network

conclusions

I just text peoplerandom stuff, if I am bored. Just say something really weird, which has no relevance to anything. Just ‘cause it doesn’t really cost you anything, well it does but you got about 500 [text messages] or so.

(Female Student, Otago)

“

”

THNQ ;-)4 ur attn

stephanie.broege@otago.ac.nz