Mobile phone use
The mobile phone has become a very significant device in the day to day life of today’s society. Essentially, the mobile phone device is a communication device that continues to make a substantial change in both the interaction of people and the culture of the society. This int6erraction is primarily with the people and with their environment. Arguably, the observation method of research was used to conduct this study. Additionally, direct participation was crucial in finding out how the phone has become part of the daily life in today’s life based on its usage in various activities that affect life. In essence, though mostly used for communication, the mobile phone device –is an essential tool in content creation and information seeking.
Analysis of use
With the dynamism of technology, the evolution of telecommunication has evolved over the years. Necessarily, there are various models of phones that continue to emerge that continue to improve the lives of individuals in the world today. Smartphone technology has mainly played an essential role as a game-changer in the telecommunication industry. As discovered in this study, I use the mobile phone for 12 hours on a typical day. The use of the telephone variety and this demonstrates just how important the device is in the accomplishing of goals in daily routines. However, this use is on an average basis since days vary in terms of the number of activities being performed or the number of activities that need the use of the phone. Even though the use of the phone depends on activities being undertaken, it is essential to note that the lesser the number of activities, the more the usage of the mobile phone as the log illustrates. Primarily, the mobile is significant as it makes social interactions simpler without the need for physical presence.
According to my log, it is clear that most of my time is spent on communication. This accounts for 70% of my time while using the phone. In essence, this use in connection could be account for by calls and the time that is spent chatting with other people. Mainly, this chatting involves the use of the default message application in the phone as well as installed applications such as the Facebook messenger and other applications such as the WhatsApp application. Also, though not quite often, the Instagram direct messaging option has featured under the category of communication. These communications were either online or offline applications that do not need the use of the internet, such as the default messenger.
In essence, the mobile phone makes use of radio waves to send information from one device to another. The mobile being a wireless device means that it can be used anywhere to communication between different people. In essence, this kind of communication is the overlong or close distance, explaining why there seems to be a higher use of the device for communication. Arguably, this kind of communication involves friends which means that the interactions are mostly based on relations with friends which as determines how long the conversation takes whether on-call or through text messaging. Additionally, there are also communications with strangers, primarily due to acquaintances made on online platforms in social media. These communications are based on subjects that the two individuals through being strangers may share in common. For instance, according to the observations, most of the strangers who I communicated with included acquaintances made on social media in discussions about various topics such as politics and fashion. D0ue to the continued interactions, the interactions went beyond the regular exchanges to direct messaging. With more than 240million mobile phone internet users, there is a projection of 270 million users who correctly use the mobile smartphone specifically for communication. These communications include person to person, person to group or formation of online communities. Some of the online communities observed in my contact include WhatsApp groups.
On the other hand, another use for the mobile phone as indicated on the log is for information seeking. In essence, information seeing was evident through the use of applications such as the workout watch and the oxford dictionary applications. These apps, on average, took 20% of the time. These applications don’t require the use of the internet to offer information, which includes the length of the distance I take while running in the morning. However, the use of these applications as opposed to communication applications is that they are only useful for the period one needs specific information. For instances, the use of the dictionary is only necessary when finding out the meaning, pronunciation or purpose of a particular word which is not quite often. On the other side, there was an apparent use of online engines to search for various topics.
Arguably, with the increase in internet literacy among various communities, there has been a rise in the use of the internet to find knowledge and utilize knowledge. In essence, this could be described in terms of social media literacies such as attention, collaboration and network awareness which have been useful in the creation of tools, imparting of knowledge of use as well as the actual use of these tools. Essentially, seeking of information has become more comfortable as individuals have access to internet-driven platforms that offer information without necessarily charging. In essence, on my part, as seen in the log, the information-seeking included the use of YouTube. This use contains watching tutorial videos on YouTube that offers knowledge on how to perform specific tasks such as making of new fashion designs. Accurately, this observation emphasizes the use of the internet to improve skills without necessarily involving a second party. Notably, this use of the phone for purposes of information seeking as observed varied in terms of location of use. For instance, the use of YouTube tutorials was mostly while at home in cases where it was done for leisure. On the other hand, the use of the offline dictionary and google search mainly was in school. Arguably, the workout application was used while in motion which was outside the house in the morning. Though this usage of the mobile phone did not account for a lot of hours of engagement such as with communication, information seeking accounted for the second-highest usage.
Significantly, on content creation, the time usage was lesser than the other two categories. Specifically, according to the observation, this usage included posting on social media such as Instagram and Facebook. Additionally, there was the use of the WordPress application. Notably, WordPress application accounted for the least amount of time as there was only one publication made –in the entire period of five days. Primarily, content creation accounted for 10% of the time used in the five days on the mobile phone. –in essence, this kind of usage involved the sharing of information learnt through online discussions as well as commenting and liking on other people’s posts.
Arguably, social media use has become quite widespread with the continued acceptance of the use of the internet. Mainly, most of the generation X who are millennials use social media. Also, baby boomers have registered an extensive use of social media, with 48.2% of these individuals being either on Facebook or Twitter. In essence, this population is against that of 77.8% of the millennial users. This fact indicates that there is a lot of content creation. However, not all users of social media platforms create content as some only consume. This fact is evident through this observation. For instance, I only created posts on Facebook on one of the five days, which took two minutes despite having spent more than two hours the entire period on Facebook.
Essentially, in most scenarios content creation is an activity that requires the use of online as opposed to the offline application. Arguably, Instagram posts took most of the time spent in the production of content.
Conclusion
Primarily, the mobile phone is a crucial device not only in communication but also in general interactions between individuals in society. This usefulness is seen in the seeking of information and the creation of content. There is the use of various applications that may either require internet use or not. Notably, the significance of the mobile phone is in ‘the creation and maintenance of relationships through mediating interaction. The continued use of mobile phones has changed the perception of social interactions by making physical presence unnecessary.