Abstract
This article examines the use of smartphones for instrumental information access and use among Danish youth. Based on 31 individual semistructured interviews with Danish high school students and a grounded theory approach, it finds that instrumental use of information on smartphones has become an integrated and relied on part of everyday lives of these young Danes. Near-ubiquitous access to information is found to have consequences at both individual and social levels. Individually, users are able to look up information irrespective of the time and place and respond and adapt to this information in a rapid and flexible manner: a process the article refers to as “flexible alignment.” Further, near-ubiquitous access to information may lead to a more flexible orientation among users, who come to depend on just-in-time (rather than ahead-of-time) access to information in dealing with the contingencies of everyday life. Socially, the article finds that users may become increasingly autonomous vis-à-vis the network of social contacts, as mobile access to information is no longer exclusively available through mediated person-to-person communication but can be accessed individually as well.
Introduction
From Indian fishermen at sea using mobile calls to acquire information about where to land the day’s catch to yield the best profit (Jensen, 2007) to Scandinavian teens micro-coordinating meetings with friends via texting (Ling & Yttri, 1999), the exchange of actionable information was always an important part of mobile communication. With the widespread adoption of smartphones in recent years, the opportunities for access and use of such information on mobile handsets have expanded as basic voice and text communication functionality is complemented by near-ubiquitous access to information in general and Internet-distributed information in particular. This development bears a great potential for influencing how, when, and where users access and utilize such information, which in turn may have wide-ranging social consequences; as Meyrowitz (1985) has suggested and as the history of mobile communication has confirmed, changes in the flows of information associated with the introduction of new media may affect social organization at individual, group, and societal levels. However, to date, little research has studied how the use of smartphones is influencing information use practices and what consequences this may have in the everyday lives of users.
This article examines the use of smartphones for information access and use in the everyday lives of Danish youth, a group who are avid adopters and users of such devices. It asks: How are smartphones used for information access and use among Danish youth, and what are the consequences of this use in their everyday lives?
The article considers the use of smartphones in their capacity as interface to Internet-distributed information. Within this overall frame it selectively focuses on access to and consumption of information that occurs outside of mediated communication directly between individuals; looking up a bus schedule online, for example, is within this focus, while asking a friend via text, mobile email, or mobile Facebook is not. Further, the article’s primary interest is in uses of information that are instrumental (or goal-directed) as opposed to expressive (or socially/process-directed). This is not to say that only instrumental use of information is important in the context of smartphones; indeed, mobile access to information is often used for passing time, for entertainment, or for sociability (Bertel & Stald, 2013; Church & Oliver, 2011; Purcell, Entner, & Karnowski, 2010). In the interview data analyzed in this article, however, the instrumental uses of information emerged as a salient and distinct theme and will be analyzed as such in what follows.
Mobile technologies and uses of information
The exchange of instrumental information was always an important part of mobile communication and continues to be so today. Indeed, the cell phone was, like the fixed-line phone before it, initially considered an instrumental device for the business sector (Green, Harper, Murtagh, & Cooper, 2001). Later this view changed as young people in particular appropriated the technology and increasingly used it for expressive purposes as well (Ling, 2004).
With smartphones, the functionality and the opportunities to access information on mobile handsets have greatly increased. 1 The academic literature on this topic, however, is limited. In particular, to date few empirically based studies have been published about the use of smartphones for information access and use in the everyday lives of ordinary users. Most research of the everyday uses of mobile media has focused on communicative uses of traditional cell phone functionality, particularly texting and voice calls.
A recent and growing mobile communication literature has, however, detailed various dimensions of smartphones and their use (Bertel & Stald, 2013; Goggin, 2011; Hjorth, Burgess, & Richardson, 2012; Watkins, Hjorth, & Koskinen, 2012). The iPhone, in particular, has been the focus of scholarly attention (Goggin, 2009, 2011; Hjorth et al., 2012; Ling & Sundsøy, 2010; Snickars & Vonderau, 2012; West & Mace, 2010). While the use of information is, to some extent, implicit in much of this work, it is most often not considered explicitly or in greater detail.
The use of location information in mobile applications has also received increasing attention in recent years (Gordon & de Souza e Silva, 2011; Wilken, 2012; Wilken & Goggin, 2012). Despite the growing interest in this topic, little research has been published by mobile communication scholars to date (de Souza e Silva, 2013), especially empirically based studies (however see Frith, 2013; Hjorth, 2013; Humphreys, 2008). Further, few published studies have examined the everyday use practices outside of specialized populations such as innovators and early adopters.
The field of human–computer interaction (HCI) has also contributed to the study of the use of information on smartphone handsets. For instance, smartphones have been studied as multifunctional, ubiquitous computing devices (Barkhuus & Polichar, 2011), and the use of mobile information has been studied in connection with the mobile web (Church & Oliver, 2011; Cui & Roto, 2008), locative media (Lindqvist, Cranshaw, Wiese, Hong, & Zimmerman, 2011), and mobile search (Church, Cousin, & Oliver, 2012). Typically, however, such studies have approached the subject from a more technology- or design-oriented perspective, studying, for example, how contextual factors influence use rather than what this use means to users in everyday life and what its consequences are.
This paper, then, fills a gap in the literature by focusing specifically on the use of information on smartphone handsets and the consequences of this use in the lives of users.
Youth and mobile technology
Youth has, as Goggin points out, traditionally been “of intense interest to researchers seeking to understand the nature of mobile communication” (Goggin, 2013, p. 83). A significant motivation for this interest is the fact that this group is often assumed to be particularly early and competent users of new technology. Castells, Fernández-Ardèvol, Qiu, and Sey (2007) for instance, argue that young people may reveal potential uses for technology quicker than other groups, because they are generally more willing to adopt and use new technologies, and because they “use these technologies more frequently, better, and faster” (p. 247).
However, the assumption that being young equals heavy and competent use of technology is not without problems. Clearly, young people are not always the heaviest users of new (or mobile) technologies; in Denmark, mobile email, for instance, is used by 58% of the 20- to 39-year-olds versus 46% of the 16- to 19-year-olds (Statistics Denmark, 2012a). Also, young people are not necessarily a homogenous group as regards access to technology, individual competencies, or indeed the configurations of the wider contexts of their individual lives (Buckingham, 2008).
Regarding the use of smartphones and the mobile Internet in general, recent statistics show, however, that young people are among the most avid adopters and heaviest users of smartphones in a Danish context. An industry survey found that among the 15- to 19-year-olds 70% owned smartphones in 2012 (Association of Danish Media, 2012). Seventy-eight percent of the 16- to 19-year-olds used the Internet on mobile phones in 2012 (Statistics Denmark, 2012a). In comparison, 50% of all Danish households owned one or more smartphones in 2012 (Statistics Denmark, 2012b), and 55% of the general population between ages 16 and 74 used the Internet on the cell phone in 2012 (Statistics Denmark, 2012c).
Because young people are at the forefront of adoption and use of smartphones and the mobile Internet, studying media use in this group may help us understand current and future use practices as well as potentials and problems associated with the new technology more generally (Hartmann, 2005; Livingstone, 2009).
Method
The study uses a grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006) and is based on 31 individual semistructured interviews (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009) with Danish high school students aged 16–21 (M = 17.7, SD = 1.1) conducted in two rounds in the fall of 2011 and spring of 2012. Seventeen female and 14 male respondents, approximately evenly spread across high school levels 1–3, were recruited from three schools which were sampled for maximum variation (Jensen, 2011); one school was located in the center of Copenhagen, one in the periphery of the greater Copenhagen area, and one in central Jutland in the opposite end of Denmark. Respondents were interviewed at the school premises in order to ground the interviews in an everyday life context. Aside from aiding memory, this “protected place” (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011, p. 188) ensured that they felt comfortable, confident, and at home during the interview sessions.
Initially the interviews were very explorative and open. Progressively the focus was narrowed as some topics became saturated in line with grounded theory. In the first round of interviews both smartphone users and nonusers were recruited in an effort to diversify the empirical material. In the second round, only smartphone users were interviewed. Analysis was conducted in an iterative coding process where initial and focused coding (Charmaz, 2006) was conducted by a single analyst using the qualitative data analysis software package Atlas.ti.
Uses of information on smartphones in the everyday lives of young Danes
Smartphones and uses of information
Previous research has found that mobile information access is a central motivation for having a smartphone (Barkhuus & Polichar, 2011; Bertel & Stald, 2013). In these studies as well as this one the general opportunity to look up information wherever and whenever is one of the most appreciated features of the technology. In the interviews some respondents mention using mobile search to “fact check” information and to inform or settle discussions in social contexts, a form of “conversation enhancement” described in previous studies (Cui & Roto, 2008). Others mention checking the weather forecast to decide whether or not to go shopping, looking up schedules for public transportation when needing to catch a bus, or simply using a search engine, typically Google or in school settings sometimes Wikipedia.
Mobile Facebook is also widely used among the respondents. Some describe how they mainly use mobile Facebook in what has been called a “listening” mode (Crawford, 2012), where they follow the interaction without contributing explicitly to it. These respondents describe that they check the Facebook app frequently, scanning for interesting social information, and briefly “listening in” on the ongoing conversation. While the use of mobile Facebook mainly seems to be about following the flow of more expressive types of information for the purpose of entertainment and keeping updated, instrumental uses are also mentioned in the interviews—for instance looking up the details of how to get to some event (e.g., a party) posted on Facebook while en route, as in Andreas’ following example.
The use of location information in mobile navigation (for instance Google Maps) is also quite popular among the respondents, and it is clear that to many of them this is a valuable tool in everyday life:
In which situations is it the most important for you to have a smartphone?
Well, if I’m lost then it is nice to be able to go into Google Maps and then find out where I am and how I get where I’m going. And then also if I’m on my way to some event that started on Facebook, like, “Where is it?” (Andreas, male, age 16)
Like many respondents, Andreas points to navigation as an important functionality on his smartphone. One reason that this functionality is central is the convenience and flexibility it provides; users do not have to look up directions ahead of time, but can depend on accessing the information as needed, “just-in-time” (Rainie & Fox, 2012). Another reason is the security that it affords users; always having location information ready at hand means that the user is never lost (provided that the technology works). This theme of security is well-known from the mobile communication literature, where the opportunity to call for help or assistance was found to be a significant motivation for the adoption of the cell phone (Ling, 2004). With smartphones users retain the opportunity to call or text for help or assistance and, in addition, get the opportunity to look up online accessible information autonomously. The themes of flexibility and autonomy are developed further next.
The aforementioned uses of information are all quite general, and most would likely be found in many smartphone user groups (see for instance Purcell et al., 2010). One practice that is peculiar to the respondents because of their status as high school students is the use of “Lectio,” an administration, communication, and information system used by many Danish high schools (Lectio.dk, 2013). Mobile access to Lectio gives the respondents continuous access to an updated, authoritative source of information (as well as basic communication functionality) that is essential in high school life; personal data and grades, individual schedules, canceled classes, classroom changes, announcements of homework, uploaded assignments, and other documents are all examples of information available through the system. Since some of this information is both necessary in daily life in high school as well as prone to frequent changes, and since students, furthermore, are expected to keep updated with any such changes, mobile access to the Lectio system is central to the respondents.
Having briefly outlined the uses of information that are most salient in the interview material, the remainder of the article will consider the consequences of these uses in everyday life.
Smartphones, information, and flexibility
Mobile communication has always been associated with flexibility, the example par excellence being “micro-coordination,” the ability to reschedule and renegotiate meetings and appointments “on-the-fly” using cell phones (Ling, 2004; Ling & Yttri, 1999). In what follows I will argue that smartphones extend the flexibility associated with mobile person-to-person communication into the area of information consumption and use and that this, furthermore, is associated with certain changes in the behavior of users, who increasingly come to depend on accessing Internet-distributed information just in time (rather than ahead of time) in everyday life situations. I will examine some of these changes and their consequences in what follows.
Flexible alignment
One significant consequence of near-ubiquitous Internet access on smartphones is that it affords users the ability to look up online information irrespective of the time and place and allows them to respond and adapt to this information in a rapid and flexible manner.
To exemplify the increased flexibility in information use associated with the smartphone, its use in the often busy morning schedule of high school students is illustrative. To the respondents, mornings are a time when the use of the smartphone for information access is particularly important. Getting ready for school they need to know their schedule to know which books to bring for the day, where to attend the first class, or if classes are canceled and they can make other use of their time: I’ll go on to lectio.dk and find my school and class. Then I’ll check what classes I have and if I have to attend, because sometimes [snaps fingers] they might cancel the class in the middle of the ... as soon as you get out of bed. So there is one rule: You always check your schedule before getting out of bed! (Mohammed, male, age 17) It was only after I got it [the smartphone] that I realized how useful it was. It was really nice to be able to check if there were any canceled classes in the morning. Because before I had to turn on the computer. It is slow ... It just took so long to turn it on and off, so there wasn’t really time [laughs]. Then you sort of had to hope for the best. There were some classes where I knew there was a tendency that they would be canceled and then I did it [turned the computer on]. But otherwise I just hoped for the best and it happened very few times that they were canceled. (Mette, female, age 18)
What is highlighted by the previous everyday examples from the mornings of high school students is the fact that seemingly minor changes in the patterns of information access have significant consequences for the behavior of users. The smartphone, for instance, provides Mohammed with actionable information about whether or not he needs to get up for school—while remaining in bed. The significance of this may seem small at first glance; Mohammed could easily get out of bed and use his computer to look up the information he needs. Getting out of bed to turn on the computer (and wait for it to boot) before checking his schedule would, however, mean that Mohammed was in fact starting the day despite not needing to. The fact that Mohammed has made checking his school schedule with his smartphone while still in bed a fixed part of his morning ritual, speaks to its importance to him.
Mette similarly describes how, previous to owning a smartphone, she would often not check her schedule for updates in the morning, partly because such changes were relatively rare events, but also because her computer was too slow for her busy morning schedule. To Mette, the ease and convenience with which information can be accessed on her smartphone means that she to a greater extent keeps updated with the school information system and is more likely to be aware of changes and able to respond to them.
From the users’ perspective, being connected to information at all times and places in a manner that is easy and quick, then, means that they can access and respond to this information in a more flexible manner than was the case before they had smartphones. This is indicative of what I will refer to as a process of “flexible alignment” facilitated by smartphones and central to their use. Where mobile person-to-person communication allows users to flexibly schedule and reschedule social appointments with others in acts of micro-coordination (Ling & Yttri, 1999), mobile access to information allows users to flexibly align their expectations, plans, and behavior with information on which they have little influence. In the case of Danish high school students, unilateral coordination such as changes to a Facebook event or the reallocation of a classroom provides examples of situations where the user has little agency aside from knowing about and adapting to the situation. The concept and practice of flexible alignment, however, also applies more broadly, for instance to practices such as checking a bus schedule, the weather forecast, or using a navigation application, where the smartphone again allows users to flexibly access information and to adjust their behavior accordingly.
Flexible alignment, then, can be said to complement micro-coordination; the latter considers negotiation between individuals, where the former considers the individual’s adaptation to information about phenomena that are not directly negotiable by him or her. Further, both flexible alignment and micro-coordination can be said to be expressions of a more general process of flexible adaptation, whereby mobile interfaces allow users to respond and adapt quickly and flexibly to information in various ways.
A reduced need for accessing information ahead of time
Another significant consequence of near-ubiquitous Internet access is that the general need to retrieve and collect information in expectation of some future event is reduced. Instead, users may depend on their ability to access the information they need, when they need it, on demand and just in time: I actually sometimes use it [the smartphone] to do my homework. If my teacher has uploaded documents to Lectio about what we’re supposed to read for that class, then sometimes the night or evening before I just think, “I’ll just read it on the train.” And then I read it on my smartphone. (Michelle, female, age 19)
Michelle here recounts how she is able to use the time she spends on transport to prepare for class. Relying on constant Internet connectivity, she is able to use the “moments between planned activities” (Cui & Roto, 2008, p. 908) and to make the most of her time, filling it up “to the very smallest folds” (Fortunati, 2002, p. 518). Students traveling by public transportation have doubtlessly always used this time to do homework. Previously the time spent traveling would, however, be disconnected from Internet access, and one would have to prepare for that situation by bringing the relevant books, dictionaries, assignments, etcetera. Near-ubiquitous access to information on smartphones eliminates (some of) the need to plan ahead. Rather than printing documents or saving PDFs to her laptop computer the night before (that she could then use during the train ride), Michelle can rely on retrieving the information as needed through the mobile connection.
Similarly, several of the respondents describe how mobile access to the Lectio system eliminates the need for them to check which classroom to go to before arriving in school: I can see my schedule and which classroom I’m supposed to be in and which homework I have to do. That’s also really cool, I think. How you can arrive in school and then you can see, “Oh, okay. I have to be in room 202 and the class is history” or something like that. (Pipa, female, age 21)
The reason that the ability to look up which classroom to go to is significant for the respondents has to do with the fact that the schools themselves allocate rooms in a quite flexible manner. A student cannot, for example, assume that he or she will always be in the same classroom for a history class, as rooms often vary between classes. Therefore, students must look up their schedule in order to know where a given class is taking place a given day. Although this allocation, according to the respondents, is typically made well in advance, classroom allocations may also change with short notice—such as when a class is moved to a computer lab. This gives further incentive to keep updated with the school information system as is facilitated by the use of smartphones.
Smartphones, information, and autonomy
In what follows I will argue that the individual’s increased opportunities to access information on mobile handsets may also have consequences at the social level. Specifically, when in need of actionable information and given a choice, users may prefer to access this information online, independently of the network of social contacts. This is in contrast to previously where mobile-mediated person-to-person communication would often be the primary means of acquiring such information.
Mobile communication, connection, and autonomy
According to relational dialectics theory (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996), the relationship between connection and autonomy in interpersonal relations can be conceptualized as a dialectical tension, where centrifugal and centripetal forces pull in opposite directions in a constant negotiation of the balance between the two. The “perpetual contact” (Aakhus & Katz, 2002) associated with mobile person-to-person communication has been found to affect this negotiation of connection and autonomy in complex ways. Pettigrew (2009), for instance, argues that text messaging gives the users a degree of control over the communication, which can be seen to increase autonomy, as when it is used for private “under the radar” communication in the presence of others (Ling & Campbell, 2009; Pettigrew, 2009). Castells et al. (2007) describe how by “giving parents the security of a lifeline to their children, wireless phones also give children greater levels of the privacy and independence they crave” (p. 148).
Other researchers conversely point to the fact that while mobile communication among children and teens may support autonomy from parents, the mobile “lifeline” mentioned by Castells et al. (2007) may simultaneously lead to increased connection in terms of surveillance by parents who are always able to check up on their children (Ling, 2007; Ling & Bertel, 2013). While the previous lines illustrate that mobile communication cannot be said to have a single unambiguous “effect” on the connection–autonomy dialectic, overall, Katz argues that “In terms of the autonomy–connectedness dialectic, perpetual contact gives priority to connectedness to the detriment of autonomy” (Katz, 2008, p. 442).
Mobile information, connection, and autonomy
The argument that will be made here, then, is that where the exchange of information through person-to-person communication on mobile handsets may be seen as pulling toward connection in the connection–autonomy dialectic, the use of Internet-based information on smartphones may conversely be said to pull toward autonomy.
Oftentimes, accessing information autonomously may be preferred, simply because it is easier; for instance, it may be easier to check Lectio or some other information system or app on the smartphone than sending a text message, calling, or finding a person to ask:
That thing about the classrooms [being able to look up where to be], that’s actually really cool. Because then you don’t have to ask and stuff.
Who would you usually ask?
Someone from my class. It doesn’t matter. Someone who’s in school. But anyways, I have it as a bookmark here, right. And then I just click it. (Alexander, male, age 19)
Hence, using a shortcut on the smartphone to quickly and easily look up his schedule frees Alexander from having to obtain this information through the network of social contacts. Beyond ease of use, the wider social context is, of course, also a significant influence when choosing how to acquire information using smartphone handsets. Always being the one asking your friends for directions or other information, for instance, may not be a desirable role to occupy: I was on my way to a girls’ night one time, and I was on my bicycle, and I had got lost. And the others would bully me to death if I called and said I had got lost. Because they’d made bets as to how late I would be, because I would get lost [laughs]. So I just checked Google Maps and found my way there, and I wasn’t late. And no one had to know I had got lost. That was really cool! (Nanna, female, age 16)
Nanna in this example gets lost on the way to a girls’ night and needs directions. Simply calling one of the other girls attending the event would be an easy way to get help. This would, however, come with a penalty, as Nanna would be teased about being lost. Benign as this teasing would undoubtedly be, Nanna would be reinforcing an undesirable image of not being in control if she called her friends; the other girls are expecting her to get lost, to the point of making bets about it. Using the smartphone to access the information without involving the others in this case is much preferable to Nanna, who manages to find her way on her own and keep her troubles secret.
Taken together, the previous examples show that the constant individualized access to information on smartphone handsets may pull toward autonomy in relationships. Having the opportunity to bypass the network of social contacts for mobile information does not, however, mean that one will always choose to do so. As Ling has argued, mobile communication also serves social functions and helps build social cohesion (Ling, 2008); unlike people, Google Maps does not do small talk or comfort users when they are lost. Taking Ling’s point further, the increased autonomy associated with individualized access to information, then, can also be seen as a missed opportunity to socialize.
Research has often emphasized how the introduction of new networked information and communication technologies increases communication (Rainie & Wellman, 2012) and interpersonal connection (Quinn & Oldmeadow, 2013) as well as breaks down situational barriers in so-called “context collapse” (Marwick & Boyd, 2011; Watkins et al., 2012). While these are, indeed, important aspects of the use of new media, Nanna’s example underscores the less often discussed point (although see Ito & Okabe, 2005, p. 260; Meyrowitz, 1985, p. 48) that new media may also be used to limit and control communication, to erect barriers, and to separate contexts. As Ling and Campbell (2011) have argued in the context of mobile communication, new media may both bring us together and tear us apart. As such, new media practices, in this case informational uses of smartphones, enter into complex negotiations of relationships, as illustrated here, giving users more choices and opportunities for managing interactions and relations as well as for regulating the connection–autonomy dialectic.
A final point, which is central and yet has not been discussed in the previous lines, is the observation that as users gain independence in the context of relationships, they are simultaneously becoming increasingly dependent on their handsets and the systems and repositories of information to which they provide access. Smartphones, then, may give users greater autonomy in interpersonal relationships, but this may come at the cost of a greater dependency on technology.
Non-use
Based on the previous analysis, it is easy to get the sense that near-ubiquitous access to information through smartphones is an absolute necessity among young Danes, something that is impossible for them to do without. At the time of the interviews, however, there are still many young Danes who do not have a smartphone—24% according to one survey (Aarup, Nielsen, Steenberg, & Andersen, 2012)—and who manage without it: There are plenty of people in my class who don’t have smartphones, who check it [Lectio] before leaving home and who check it the night before and write it [which classrooms to go to] down and stuff. Or send text messages to those who do have smartphones and say, “Hey, which room are we in?” [laughs]. I think it is just a habit. You get used to it. (Sara, female, age 18)
Sara, herself a smartphone user, in this example describes how some of her classmates do perfectly fine without smartphones by accessing and storing information ahead of time (as opposed to just in time) or by depending on their network of contacts to gain access to the information second hand. This is in a way the mirror side of the previous discussion of flexibility and autonomy. Where individualized access to information through the smartphone may decrease the need for ahead-of-time access to information and increase the autonomy of the user vis-à-vis the network of social contacts, not having this access means that the need to access information ahead of time or through mediated person-to-person communication remains the same. As the majority of young Danes today have smartphones, it is, however, also clear that the status quo is not what it used to be. Rather, what until quite recently used to be the usual way of doing things is being recast as decidedly inconvenient in the light of smartphone ownership; indeed, several of the respondents describe how they have become accustomed to the convenience of constant Internet access in particular and, consequently, would no longer want to do without.
Toward taken-for-grantedness
While the mobile Internet has, as Goggin has pointed out, “been famously slow to materialize” (2011, p. 129), recent years have seen a transformation of mobile Internet access from novelty to mundane and dependable everyday technology. Indeed, when interviewing young Danish smartphone users, it is striking just how ordinary near-ubiquitous Internet access on mobile devices has become to them and how they have come to depend on it: I think it can be difficult for people. I mean, I don’t understand how people can know that they have to be in a specific classroom if they do not have a smartphone. (Pipa, female, age 21) I mean that it’s almost like a necessity, right. It’s like I trust it so much that I don’t really check where it is I’m going before I leave. Then I can just quickly check the travel plan and find out. Like that, right.… So that way I don’t do it like I normally would if I did not have the smartphone, right. (Simon, male, age 19)
Pipa, like many of the respondents and as described previously, depends on her smartphone for finding out which classes will be in which classrooms. She has come to rely on this to the point that it is almost incomprehensible to her how others can do without. Simon, too, has come to depend on near-ubiquitous Internet access on his smartphone, which has allowed him a more flexibly structured everyday life. He no longer looks up travel information before leaving the house, but rather trusts his device to supply this information as needed, just in time. Such reliance on and “trust” in the technology suggests that among young Danes smartphones are increasingly becoming taken for granted (Ling, 2012) in their capacity as interface for accessing and using information.
Conclusion
This paper finds that near-ubiquitous, individualized access to Internet-distributed information on smartphones is becoming an integrated and relied-on element in the everyday lives of a sample of young Danish high school students. While Internet access on mobile handsets is arguably best understood as an incremental evolutionary step in the history of mobile and new media rather than a revolutionary one, the technology is found to have significant consequences at both individual and social levels.
At the individual level, constant Internet access affords users the ability to look up online information irrespective of the time and place and allows them to respond and adapt to (new or updated) information in a rapid and flexible manner: a process I have referred to as “flexible alignment.” Further, the general need to retrieve and collect information in expectation of some future event is reduced. This may lead to a more flexible orientation, where users come to depend on just-in-time (rather than ahead-of-time) access to information in dealing with the contingencies of everyday life.
At the social level, users may become more autonomous vis-à-vis the network of social contacts as information on demand is no longer exclusively accessible through mediated person-to-person communication, but can be accessed individually as a result of near-ubiquitous Internet access.
While the aforementioned developments are mainly framed in positive terms (in line with the way they are experienced by the respondents), it is clear that there may also be a less positive side to them. If the capacity of individuals to keep updated and flexibly align their behavior with (new or updated) information becomes an expectation or indeed a demand, this might, for instance, promote a “tyranny” of flexibility (see for instance Eriksen, 2001). As users come to rely on individualized access to information, there is also the risk that they may miss out on opportunities to socialize and in various ways become overly dependent on access to external information. At this point in time such considerations remain mostly speculative. They do, however, indicate that the evolving practices, norms, and expectations surrounding mobile access to (and use of) information is a highly relevant and interesting topic for further research.
Footnotes
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.