Cellphone Social Influence

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Introduction According to Nurullah (2009), mobile phones are “agents of social change” in hands of active users and that the mobile phones culture revolutionizes the lives of society across different cultures with own norms, values and patterns of behaviours. His study revealed that the usage pattern of mobile phones is different across different age groups. For the generation Y users, their mobile phones are regarded as “cultural artifact” (Nurullah 2009, 23); act as agent of socialization and the personalized devices are extension of their identities in their social circles. In contrast, the older generation merely regards their mobile phones as an enhanced form of communication that keeps them connected to their family members and work. …show more content…

It was found that patterns of use among the different age groups of respondents are quite polarized. 75% of respondents from the age groups of 18 to 41 years old admitted to heavy use of text messaging on everyday basis while the remaining 25% of respondents belonging to the older age groups of 42 to 57 years old tend not text and preferred phone calls “due to their synchronicity because they are simple and practical” (Carbonell, Oberst, Beranuy 2013, 906). Although mobile phones have impacted users across all ages, Ito & Okake (2005) revealed that the younger generation is the most active group among users and that this generation drives the text messaging culture worldwide. In a more recent research conducted by Mobile UK, it suggested similar results and analyzed that mobile phones usage reflected life stages and situation of its users; “as people change, their use of mobile phones will change too” (Crabtree, Nathan, Roberts 2010, …show more content…

In contrast, respondents between the ages of 18 to 33 years old primarily viewed the use of mobile phones as a way of keeping and maintaining social ties with their peers. In fact, Nurullah’s (2009) study analyzed that the pattern of use of mobile phones distinguishes adolescents from the older generation. He revealed that while mobile phones act as maintenance of peer group formation and connection to social network among adolescents, they also contribute to identity-formation of younger users; represents who they are and what they mean to others through the usage of their mobile

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