This term I’m teaching students who have little or no exposure to academia. They are to work on a problem-oriented academic project, learning the skills of the trade. In order to give them a feel for what they are supposed to deliver in May, I’ve given them reports from the previous term. Although I’ve picked the best reports they are lacking - they are the work of beginners. I therefore wanted to have the students read a proper academic paper - from a real journal. Hmm … much too difficult ? No, not necessarily. I’ve picked a paper by Monk et al entitled “Why are mobile phones annoying?”. The topic is straightforward and easy to understand. In order to help the students with the experimental setup, the statistics, the theory, etc, I’ve written 4 pages of comments. I’m quite keen to see if it goes down well with the students; I’m currently running a small pilot study.
The article is
Monk, Andrew, Carroll, Jenni, Parker, Sarah, Blythe, Mark (2004): Why are mobile phones annoying? Behaviour and Information Technology, vol 23 no 1, 33-41.
Download the article (pdf).
Download the comments (Word) (in Danish).

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Today Lisbeth Klastrup and I published a new report on the results from a survey on 13-25year old Danes uses of social networking sites and their potential interest in using them from their mobile platforms. The report is in Danish but perhaps some of you non-Danish speaking people may be able to get an idea about the results anyway, especially looking at the figures and tables.

There are a lot of interesting findings in the data from the survey but the main conclusions are that
13-24årige danskere
• ikke bruger mere end to sociale netværkstjenester
• primært bruger sociale netværkssider til at styrke offline relationer og holde sig bredt orienteret
• helst vil have vennernes statusopdatering som billeder, efterfulgt af status om humør/følelser
• ikke er interesserede i at bruge sociale netværk kun på mobilen, men via en kombination af medier
• … men hvis servicen er gratis, nem at bruge og vennerne er på, er der mange potentielle brugere

You can find the full report here:

http://stald.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/stald-afhandling-301009-final-pdf.pdf

All the best
Gitte

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Hello all,

Amanda Lenhart has just released a new report on sexting (the portmanteau of sex and texting). It is available at:

http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2009/PIP_Teens_and_Sexting.pdf

The abstract from the Pew site reads as follows:

As texting has become a centerpiece in teen social life, parents, educators and advocates have grown increasingly concerned about the role of cell phones in the sexual lives of teens and young adults. A new survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that 4% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to someone else via text messaging, a practice also known as “sexting”; 15% say they have received such images of someone they know via text message.

Focus group findings show that sexting occurs most often in one of three scenarios:

1. Exchanges of images solely between two romantic partners
2. Exchanges between partners that are then shared outside the relationship
3. Exchanges between people who are not yet in a relationship, but where often one person hopes to be.

“Teens explained to us how sexually suggestive images have become a form of relationship currency,” said Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist and author of the report. “These images are shared as a part of or instead of sexual activity, or as a way of starting or maintaining a relationship with a significant other. And they are also passed along to friends for their entertainment value, as a joke or for fun.”

Teens also described the pressure they feel to share these types of images. One high school girl wrote: “When I was about 14-15 years old, I received/sent these types of pictures. Boys usually ask for them or start that type of conversation. My boyfriend, or someone I really liked asked for them. And I felt like if I didn’t do it, they wouldn’t continue to talk to me. At the time, it was no big deal. But now looking back it was definitely inappropriate and over the line.”

The report also reveals that teens who are more intense users of cell phones are more likely to receive sexually suggestive images. For these teens, the phone has become such an important conduit for communication and content of all kinds that turning it off is nearly unthinkable.
“The desire for risk-taking and sexual exploration during the teenage years combined with a constant connection via mobile devices creates a ‘perfect storm’ for sexting,” said Lenhart. “Teenagers have always grappled with issues around sex and relationships, but their coming-of-age mistakes and transgressions have never been so easily transmitted and archived for others to see.”

ABOUT THE SURVEY

This report is based on the findings of a telephone survey on teens’ and parents’ use of mobile phones and six focus groups conducted in 3 U.S. cities in October 2009 with teens between the ages of 12 and 18. The quantitative results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research International between June 26 and September 24, 2009, among a sample of 800 teens ages 12-17 and a parent or guardian. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for the complete set of weighted data. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting telephone surveys may introduce some error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

Rich L.

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I’ve created a blog on supervision where my essays on topics in academic writing can be downloaded. Most of them are, unfortunately, in Danish.

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Hello all,

On Monday the Pew Research Center released a report on distracted driving. The opening of the report reads as follows:

Over the summer of 2009, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducted a survey of 800 teens ages 12-17 asking about their experiences with cell phone use in cars. All of the teens in our survey were asked about their experiences as passengers, and if they were age 16 or older and have a cell phone, they were also asked about their own actions behind the wheel including both talking and text messaging. Additionally, the Pew Internet Project and the University of Michigan conducted nine focus groups with teens ages 12-18 between June and October 2009 where the topic of driving and mobile phones was addressed. The following are the major findings from the survey and focus groups:

– 75% of all American teens ages 12-17 own a cell phone, and 66% use their phones to send or receive text messages.
– Older teens are more likely than younger teens to have cell phones and use text messaging; 82% of teens ages 16-17 have a cell phone and 76% of that cohort are cell phone texters.
– One in three (34%) texting teens ages 16-17 say they have texted while driving. That translates into 26% of all American teens ages 16-17.
– Half (52%) of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American teens ages 16-17.
– 48% of all teens ages 12-17 say they have been in a car when the driver was texting.
– 40% say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger.

This is some of the first data coming out of their analysis of teen mobile phone use. The full report on distracted driving can be found at:

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1411/teens-distracted-driving-texting-cellphone-use

Rich L.

The link to the Ning site is: http://mobilesociety.ning.com/profiles/blogs/pew-report-on-distracted

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