Staying connected while on the move

TLDR

Cell phone use is increasingly integrated into daily life, raising questions about whether it is merely an extension of fixed telephone services or offers distinct value. The study investigates how gratifications sought from cell phone use relate to different usage patterns and social connectedness. Survey of Taiwanese college students shows that cell phones supplement fixed phones by strengthening family bonds, expanding social networks, and enabling symbolic proximity, evolving from a business luxury to a key facilitator of social relationships, offering instant community membership for the poorly connected, with gender mediating how users maintain ties.

Abstract

As people integrate use of the cell phone into their lives, do they view it as just an update of the fixed telephone or assign it special values? This study explores that question in the framework of gratifications sought and their relationship both to differential cell phone use and to social connectedness. Based on a survey of Taiwanese college students, we found that the cell phone supplements the fixed telephone as a means of strengthening users’ family bonds, expanding their psychological neighborhoods, and facilitating symbolic proximity to the people they call. Thus, the cell phone has evolved from a luxury for businesspeople into an important facilitator of many users’ social relationships. For the poorly connected socially, the cell phone offers a unique advantage: it confers instant membership in a community. Finally, gender was found to mediate how users exploit the cell phone to maintain social ties.