Mobile Telephony and Globalization

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R. Sooryamoorthy University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa B. Paige Miller Louisiana State University, USA Paul Mbatia University of Nairobi, Kenya Wesley Shrum Louisiana State University, USA Past, Present and Future of Research in the Information Sociey Tunis, 13-15 Nov, 2005 Does Mobile Telephony Reduce Globalization? ICTs and the Structure of Personal Networks

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Factors associated with mobile phone usage and the social structural consequences of such usage; The composition and location of the social ties maintained through mobile technologies and other ICTs. Mobile Telephony, Globalization and Personal Networks Focus of the Paper

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Focus of the Paper The objective of this paper is two-fold: 1. To understand the use of the mobile phone in relation to similar (or different) use of other means of communication (the Internet and email) and to see how far these technologies complement each other. 2. To examine the ways in which the use of the mobile phones and their use of and access to ICTs structure the local and global networks of the respondents. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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We argue that the regular use of the mobile phone is closely associated with the use of other modern communication technologies such as the computer, the Internet and email; and it has structural consequences, specifically in the composition and location of social networks. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks Focus of the Paper

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Context and Methods Respondents were sampled from three institutions –two academic institutions and a software concern– in the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. Carried out during the months of September to December 2002, a total of 610 surveys were finally available analysis (123 (20.2%) from the software organization, 385 (63.1%) from the technical academic institution and the rest 102 (16.7%) from the general academic institution). Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Context and Methods Because of the characteristic similarities of teaching institutions the two institutions are combined and labelled as ‘public sector’ while the software business, a private initiative, is ‘private sector’ in the analysis. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Context and Methods We used five variables to measure the use of the mobile phone use: the frequency of the mobile phone use calls made in a day calls received in a day the duration of the call, and daily use. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Context and Methods For the network part the data was gathered under the categories of: 1. relation (family, friends, work, romantic, others) 2. location (local, home town/district, other rural district, other town in Kerala, India but outside Kerala, and foreign) Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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The most prolific users are the private sector employees who use it daily as against their public sector counterparts. As noticed in all other dimensions (no. of calls made and received in a day, and duration of the calls) of use the private respondents speak more time on their mobile phones than the public sector respondents do. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks Results

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Results Does the use of the mobile phone concurrent with the access and use of ICTs (computer, the Internet and email) and complement the communication needs of the respondents? Significant difference is evident between the daily mobile users and non-daily users in their computer, Internet and email uses. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Results Daily mobile phone users have a computer of their own at home than the non-daily users. There is better connectivity for the daily users. Those who use the cell phone daily are more likely to have the access (or use) to the Internet, or vice versa. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Results There is also complementarity of technologies, namely, the mobile phone use and the Internet. There is a close relationship between daily mobile use and the ICTs, complementing each other. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Results Are the social networks of individuals influenced and shaped by the communication technologies they adopt, possess and use? Daily mobile users have more mobile phone and email network contacts than the non-daily users and vice versa for face-to-face, letter and landline network ties. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Results Daily email users maintain more mobile phone and email networks and diversity in the means of contact than the non-daily email users. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Results Non-daily mobile and email users maintain more family network contacts than the daily users… Friendship and romantic networks are more for the daily mobile and email users. In the composition of work networks we could not find any significant variation between daily and non-daily users. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Results Daily users, both mobile and email, do not have much local contacts like the non-daily users as evident from their networks in the capital city, hometown, other town and other rural districts in Kerala. The daily users have more non-local network contacts (outside Kerala and India). Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Results The index for external non-local contacts is significantly high for the daily mobile and email users. Daily mobile phone and email users tend to develop and maintain more global contacts than their non-daily counterparts. Gender, sector, marital status and frequency of mobile phone use are negatively related to family networks. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Results As for friends networks, factors such as age, gender, sector, marital status and frequency of email use independent factors. Work networks of the respondents are found to be associated with gender, professional nature of job and marital status. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Results Locational diversity of networks is found to be closely related to age, education, professional nature of job, sector, and frequency of mobile phone use and email use. Email rather than the mobile phone is a determinant factor in family networks, friends networks, and locational diversity of networks. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Results The respondents either tend to use multiple technologies (technology cluster) to interact with others or are oriented towards traditional face-to-face methods. All technologies are not equally relevant to this technology cluster as landline and cell phones are substitutional while cell phones and email are complementary. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks

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Thank You. Mobile Telephony, Globalization, Personal Networks