My Role
Researcher | Writer | Editor
Timeline
Dec 2021 - May 2022
Senior Thesis:
Eli Chertok Award Winner
Fighting for control: social organization, interactions, meaning, and agency in the age of intelligent mobile technology
The Problem
Technology is advancing far faster than social structures and human evolution can adapt for. As interactive technologies find their way into workplaces, classrooms, and even the hands of toddlers, mobile devices are becoming increasingly influential in social life.
The Research Methodology
1. I drew off of individual experiences to explore the role of mobile devices on social organization, interactions, meaning, and agency.
2. I conducted an in-depth literature review of existing research pertaining to the the role of mobile devices on social organization, interactions, meaning, and agency.
3. I conducted semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students at Whitman College to understand individual perceptions of mobile technology in social life.
4. I collected participant mobile phone screen-time data to investigate whether participants’ estimations of their phone-related behavior were accurate.
The Findings
My results indicate that mobile devices are fundamentally changing how we understand and interact with the world. Mobile devices can make our lives easier, relieving us of tasks we would otherwise have to perform manually and reinforcing relationships through digital communication. However, mobile devices can also have negative effects on our sense of self, agency, focus, and behaviors.
The Tools
Literature Review | Qualtrics | Python Plotly & Pandas | iPhone Screen Time Reports | Dedoose
A (very) brief summary of literature review findings:
Literature reveals that technology changes social networks on both a micro and a macro scale.
At a micro-level, mobile technology is both helping and hindering individual agency and choices. Mobile technology has become an increasingly widespread tool that individuals can use to streamline research processes, foster communication, and conduct administrative tasks, such as calculations or reminders with high levels of efficiency. However, users are also becoming increasingly exposed to persuasive technology, which alters how users behave and create meaning, often imperceptibly.
On a macro-scale, inclusion in the technological network of data is progressively becoming a prerequisite to the social. Individuals are increasingly barred from ‘opting out’ of technological framework and data tracking as society shifts partially into a digital environment.
Thus, the rapid growth of interactive mobile technology is redefining social connectedness, values, and agency.
This study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative data collection to investigate the role of interactive mobile technology in redefining social connectedness, values, and agency. The study explores how well individuals understand the role of mobile technology in their life. Are our perceptions of the role of interactive technology consistent with the effects of mobile technology on our thoughts, options, and behaviors?If not, how are individual agencies and social organizations fundamentally changed?
Quantitative Data Collection
Overview
I collected quantitative data through Apple screen-time-reports to gain insight into the physical screen-time behavior of participants. Participants sent me detailed daily screen-time reports for two weeks. For the first week, I instructed participants to use their phones as they normally would, with no notification changes. For the second week, participants had notifications disabled.
Rationale
Notifications are not the singular determinant of phone behavior; however, they are a tangible and easily measurable tool used in mobile technology to increase user engagement. Thus, the measurement of behavior in two different conditions, one with and one without phone notifications, allowed for analysis of how notification-based phone behavior differed from participant perception of the affects of notifications on phone behavior.
Data Collected
Screen-time reports measured and recorded the following:
1. Phone-pickups
Apple counts pick-ups when a user actively engages with the phone screen. Scrolling through notifications, unlocking the phone, or interacting with the lock screen are all forms of engagement. The phone-pickup analytics further allows users to see the first-used app after a phone pick-up, which explains why a user picks up their phone.
2. Daily screen-time:
Daily screen-time measures the total time a user spends with their phone screen unlocked every day. Screen-time also measures time spent on individual apps andthe distribution of app usage over a day.
3. Notifications
The notification tracking feature allows users to see how many notifications they receive daily, the applications sending notifications, and the distribution of notifications received for the day.
Sample Screen-Time Report Data
Qualitative Data Collection
I conducted two in-depth interviews with each of the seven participants for qualitative data collection. The first and second interviews for each participant were one week apart.
Social and Emotional Implications
I used in-depth semi-structured interviews to gain insight into how participants perceived the role of mobile devices (including but not limited to mobile phones) in social connectedness, attention, and agency.
Making Data Predictions
I asked participants to estimate their mobile phone screen-time behavior under both the notifications enabled and notifications disabled conditions. I further asked participants to predict how disabling phone notifications might alter their screen-time behavior in the first interview, then asked them to reflect on behavioral, emotional, and perceptual changes in behavior in their second interview.
Data Collection Timeline
Recruitment
I used convenience sampling to obtain a pool of participants. I recruited participants from Whitman college using email. I also used in-person meetings and text messages to ask my personal Whitman connections to participate in my study.
Participation Criteria
Participants needed to be:
- 18 years or older by the start of the study
- current Whitman undergraduate student
- using a sixth-generation iPhone or later as primary form of mobile phone
- running a version of iOS 10.3 or later on iPhone
I controlled for the iOS software to ensure that the screen-time reporting across participants was collected using the same method. I had no requirements about the phone use or mobile behavior of participants. There were no specifications about the notifications settings that participants used in the week preceding their first interview because I asked users about their perceptions of mobile devices in their daily lives, a role that would be shaped in part by their regular notification choices.
Sample
My final sample comprised seven students between the ages of 19 and 22 between their sophomore and senior year at Whitman College. Three of the students were male-identifying, while four were female-identifying. I offered participants the option of having interviews via Zoom as a COVID-19 precaution; however, all participants elected to have in-person interviews at various participant-selected on-campus locations. I recorded all interviews and reaffirmed participant consent before pressing ‘record’ at the beginning of each interview.
Some of the most significant limitations and generalizability implication include:
Sample Size:
The small sample size means that my findings are not generalizable to the entire population of Whitman College, or beyond.
Avg. Screen Time Compared to Literature:
My data suggests that my sample may not be very representative of college students in general because the average screen time reported by study participants is significantly lower than the average screen time of college students collected from larger more generalizable studies.
Self-Selection Bias:
Self-selection bias likely influenced the participants that opted in and out of the study.
Qualitative Data
Quantitative Data Findings
Sample Size:
The small sample size means that my findings are not generalizable to the entire population of Whitman College, or beyond.
Avg. Screen Time Compared to Literature:
My data suggests that my sample may not be very representative of college students in general because the average screen time reported by study participants is significantly lower than the average screen time of college students collected from larger more generalizable studies.
Self-Selection Bias:
Self-selection bias likely influenced the participants that opted in and out of the study.
Qualitative Data Findings
Intentional Engagement:
Some participants mentioned that with notifications disabled, they were more focused and less guilty when using their phones, even in “unproductive” ways because their behavior felt more intentional.
Emotional Escape:
The distraction afforded by mobile technology can be both beneficial and detrimental to the goals of individuals. Four out of seven interviewees reported intentionally, or at least consciously, using their mobile devices to escape negative emotions.
Staying Relevant: The Pressure to Respond:
Participants feel external pressure to stay connected to mobile technology at all times. While six out of seven respondents suggested they do not enjoy constantly receiving messages and updates, all seven respondents expressed apprehension at the idea of turning notifications off for a week. They did not want to miss important messages.Many felt compelled to respond to messages out of a sense of responsibility to other people and to stay socially and culturally relevant. Thus, participants’ phones became proxies for peer pressure.
Digital [Dis]connection:
Participants gave me names, relationship details, conversation details, and nuanced information about many of the people they conversed with using messaging apps, suggesting most messaging relationships are strong ties. Conversely, participants used social media apps primarily to connect to weak ties.Participants were more likely to make broad statements about “followers” or“people who like my photos” than they were to provide intimate details about social media connections.
Alone While Together: Phone Snubbing:
While the number of times we open our phones in a day is not inherently correlated with screen-time or productive phone use, participants reported that picking up their phones can draw us out of the present moment and hinder in-person communication -- or at least witnessing other people pick up their phones during conversation can make us feel disconnected from them.
The rise of mobile technology is not only reshaping our networks and connections but also reshaping social ecology. The environment that humans live and interact with is no longer confined to tangible spaces and resources. Opting out of the digital space in today’s era means opting out of social interactions and many occupational, educational, and financial opportunities, as power systems and communication networks shift into an interconnected digital space.When we pick up a mobile device, we are not only choosing to be physically influenced, but also mentally influenced. We are placing a part of our consciousness into the digital space, and we are both learning and interacting in the intangible digital world. However, as social, cultural, and economic structures become increasingly intertwined with the digital world, picking up a mobile device is becoming less of a choice. Thus, technology has become a fundamental mediating force in human actions and experiences. We are becoming hybrid both in our body and in our environment as we shift our tools and parts of our being into the digital world.
As an extension of this study, I would propose collecting data from more participants for a more extended period to provide greater generalizability and mitigate time-dependent changes in phone behavior.The longer each condition is studied, the less significant an anomalous day of phone use becomes. Furthermore, the study has the potential to be examined longitudinally. Many participants voiced anxiety or a feeling of missing something when their notifications were initially disabled. It is possible that in the long-term, if participants kept notifications off, they may begin habitually reaching for their phone less and may experience less anxiety-related to a lack of notifications.
