Reseach Question
How dependent am I on my smartphone in going about my day-to-day activities?
Sample & Methodology
My media device of choice for this diary activity is my Android smartphone. I have chosen to study my dependency on the smartphone because it is not only a communication and entertainment tool to me, but also plays a big part in organizing and executing my everday activities and chores.
I made my observations through out, from waking time to sleeping time, for a period of seven days. As such, I recorded my observations while in bed at dawn, early morning after waking, while commuting, before noon, at lunch time, in the afternoon, late afternoon, early evening, at dinner time, late evening, and while in bed before falling asleep. The aim of these observations were to establish the extent to which I use my smartphone in executing daily tasks at all the times specified. My depency on the smartphone is comparison to that of my laptop.
Findings
Findings of week-long observation revealed that I have a high depency on my Android smartpone in my day-to-day activities. The smartphone serves as my telephone, mobile internet, a games console together with a great variety of apps that are my gateway to just about anything through out the day (Peters 2010, 47). My interaction with the smartphone begins before I even get out of the bed. This is because my smartphone is what I depend on to wake me up through an alarm at 6AM. This further translates that my smartphone is the very first thing I touch as I turn off the alarm. My connection to Internet starts almost immediately through Facebook and Twitter.
When starting the day, I always use my smartphone to check the day’s headlines, the weather and upcoming activities rather than using the laptop. It has also become a routine for me to check my mail in both Yahoo and Gmail accounts in the morning shortly after am out of the bed.
When commuting, either to or fro home, I usually turn to my smartphone for entertainment i.e. listening to rock and RnB music. I depend on this gadget to surf, text, and post while on the move – a privilege that a laptop would not provide me with as good (Himmelsbach 2012, 97). It was also clear that I rely heavily on apps like google maps along with other smartphone navigation apps when in places am not too familiar with. Similarly, I depend on the GPS tracking in the Motion X bicycle app when riding bicycle to school.
Similarly, my smartphone is the designated shopper and banker (Baroudi 2009, 261). The growth of mobile commerce has meant that I am able to access favourite stores’ websites, locate them, compare prices and place orders especially fast foods for home delivery. Furthermore, I am able to count on my smartphone to pay for some bills such as coffe by simply waving it in front of a scanner.
Compared to the laptop, I use the smartphone throughout the day to share video clips with my friends on Youtube and Facebook, for constan SMS communication, e-mail and instant messaging, as well as checking sports scorelines. Generally, my internet browsing through the smartphone hits its peak during lunch time, when nearly all my friends are gaming. The late afternoons are mostly for SMS, especially my family and close friends.
Am on on the Internet most of the early evenings through my smartphone. This is the time I engage in a lot of emailing, instant messaging, listening to music and playing games. However, the addiction with the smartphone is lowest during dinner time because my family does not encourage bringing phones at the dinner table (LeRoy & Stafford 2009, 64). After dinner, my smartphone internet activity is at its overall peak with games, social networking, internet messaging and instant browsing. In fact, the only time my smartphone plays second fiddle to the laptop is when am doing my homework or watching a movie in my room before going to bed.
The charts below show my percentage dependancy of the smartphones in four categories: E-mail, SMS, Internet, GPS, and Instant messaging.
Analysis
The findings of my research show that I have grown more dependent on my smartphone to run activities in my daily life. Compared to a few years back when I only had a laptop and used to access the Internet only during mornings, evenings, and weekends, I am now able to go online almost throughout the day and even late into the night. In addition, Internet access has become more spontaneous and unplanned compared to before when using a laptop was purposeful and time-bound (Kim 2011, 16). The numerous user-friendly apps have rendered the smartphone an indispensable gadget to me; the apps require minimal or even no navigation through the file structures, they require no addresses, no searching or the need for clicking on links to gain accessibility (Kleinman 2009, 47). This makes the smartphone more dependable than the laptop because of its ability to afford me direct access to content or online service of my choice from anywhere at any time (Ding et al 2011, 100).
My dependence on the smartphone has been mostly inspired by the world around me. A strong sociological effect has come from my social group with whom I maintain constant connection through Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, emails and instant messaging. In the case that my smartphone got lost, stolen or broke down, I would strive to replace it instantly. This is because my world literally revolves around the smartphone with the all source of concern being threat to the volumes of personal data stored in it (MobileReference 2007, 20).
To this end, it is evident that being away from my smartphone would evoke separation anxiety (Koehler & Lester 2007, 95). I have grown so dependent on using my smartphone to go online anytime, anywhere, that lack of it would render me unable to handle my daily routine.
References:
Koehler, C, Wallace, & Lester, June, Fundamentals of information studies: understanding information and its environment (Chicago: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2007) 95.
Lau, L., Sian, Towards a user-centric context aware system: empowering users through activity recognition using a smartphone as an unobtrusive device, (Germany: kassel university press GmbH, 2011), 29.
IJsselsteijn, Wijnand, Yvonne de Kort, Cees Midden, Berry Eggen, & Elise van den Hoven, Persuasive Technology: First International Conference on Persuasive Technology for Human Well-Being, PERSUASIVE 2006, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, May 18-19, 2006, Proceedings (New York: Springer, 2006), 34.
Hakoama, Mikiyasu, & Hakoyama, Shotaro, The Impact of Cell Phone Use on Social Networking and Development Among College Students (Michigan: Central Michigan University, 2012), 12.
Ding Hooi Ting, Suet Fong Lim, Tanusina Siuly Patanmacia, Ca Gie Low, Gay Chuan Ker, (2011) “Dependency on smartphone and the impact on purchase behavior: Insight and Ideas for Responsible Marketers, (West YorkShire: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2012), Vol. 12 Iss: 3, pp.193 – 203
MobileReference, Statistics Quick Study Guide for Smartphones and Mobile Devices, (Boston: MobileReference, 2007), 20.
Kim, J, Kuinam, Proceedings of the International Conference on It Convergence and Security 2011, (New York: Springer, 2012), 16.
LeRoy, Roger, & Stafford, D, Alan, Economic Education for Consumers, (Connecticut: Cengage Learning, 2009), 64.
Kleinman, Sharon, The Culture of Efficiency: Technology in Everyday Life, (Bern: Peter Lang, 2009), 46.
Himmelsbach, Tobias, A Survey on Today’s Smartphone Usage, (Munich: GRIN Verlag, 2012), 97.
Baroudi, Carol, Hill, Jeffrey, Reinhold, Arnold, & Senxian, Jhana, Green IT For Dummies, (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009), 261.
Peters, Rob, Let’s Chat, (North America: Xulon Press, 2010), 47.
