Permanently online – Permanently connected: Explorations into university students’ use of social media and mobile smart devices
Introduction
There can be no doubt that within a very short period of time—in fact, within only a few years—we have observed a rapid increase in the availability and use of dynamic online connections between individuals as well as between users and mass-media content. These connections are used primarily for inter-individual and in-group communication and interaction, for retrieving and using both information and entertainment, and for everyday problem solving. Given the affinity of younger people for innovative technology, the new mobile online communication practices are today particularly visible among adolescents and young adults (e.g., Madden et al., 2013, Medienpädagogischer Forschungsbund Südwest MPFS, 2013), but they also encompass children as well as older adults. This “mediatization” (Hepp, 2013, Lundby, 2009) of our lives entails a hybrid of interpersonal and mass communication that, among many other things, has led to new forms of social relationships and social support (e.g., “Facebook friendships”, cf. Akbulut & Günüç, 2012), new manifestations of communicative behavior (e.g., cyberbullying), and new discussions about norms and expectations (e.g., standards for privacy) in almost all communication contexts that are part of this new networked world (boyd and Ellison, 2007, Castells, 2010, Vorderer et al., 2015).
One of the most striking consequences of these developments seems to be a fundamental change in how people deal with electronic media today: Instead of using it to receive or retrieve information and/or entertainment only at certain points in time and for a specific amount of time, many people have now developed the habit of being online and connected with others almost permanently (Quinn and Oldmeadow, 2013, Vorderer and Kohring, 2013). And while online, they sometimes do not even engage with explicit messages or tasks; they are just “there,” online and “together” with others (Turkle, 2011). Today, there seems to be hardly any social context, whether in public or in private spaces, where individuals voluntarily go and stay offline and disconnected. Instead, they stay in touch with one another as much as possible, whenever and wherever. This may be in the classroom, where students need (or feel that they need) to almost constantly split their attention between what their instructor is presenting and what is available to them on their smartphones, or at work, where the efficacy of labor is often compromised as employees try to juggle multiple tasks competing for their attention on their desktop or tablet computers (Kim and Byrne, 2011, Lim and Chen, 2012). The same dynamics occur in private social interactions as well, such as when one is sitting in a restaurant or at home, among a group of friends or even with a child or a romantic partner, or when watching television (“Social TV”, e.g., Ducheneaut, Moore, Oehlberg, Thornton, & Nickell, 2008). In situations where one is alone and the activity does not require much attention, like waiting in line, this kind of behavior appears to be most common. Moments of inactivity seem to generally disappear due to people reaching for their smart devices as soon as they have nothing else to do that requires their attention.
But in addition to this rather specific kind of online behavior while being alone, individuals in social situations now also seem to spend less time focusing solely on one communicative partner or message, instead shifting their attention between partners who are physically present and the screen of their mobile device, where a new message has come in or is expected. Furthermore, it appears as though these individuals do this despite the fact that they often do not even know who has sent them a message—or indeed, whether a message has even been sent at all. It almost seems as if they felt coerced into regularly and frequently checking their (potentially) incoming communication. In fact, research shows that a large part of mobile phone use is devoted to these sorts of “checking behaviors” (e.g., Oulasvirta, Rattenbury, Ma, & Raita, 2012). Interestingly enough, such “smartphone-related habits are not yet perceived as problematic” (Oulasvirta et al., 2012, p. 113), at least not by their users. Recent qualitative findings show, however, that users distinguish between a more positively experienced “extractive” mobile Internet use, through which they retrieve information in a controlled and a focused manner while guarding their presence in their physical environment, and a more negatively experienced “immersive” mobile Internet use, in which they feel dragged into online communication almost as if they were addicted to it (Humphreys, von Pape, & Karnowski, 2013, p. 500).
The aim of this paper is to take a closer look at the phenomenon of being permanently online and permanently connected, including previous research. We will first provide a definition of these constructs and show their relevance, and subsequently report the results of a survey on students’ permanent online behaviors.
Section snippets
Permanently online and permanently connected
Being permanently online and connected (PO/PC) is defined here along two dimensions: 1) As an overt behavior in the form of protracted use of electronic media and 2) as a psychological state of permanent communicative vigilance (cf., for a similar distinction: Walsh, White, & Young, 2010), where one dimension may exist without the other. Overt behavior in the form of the use of online services and of information technology that provide the technical basis for the constant availability of online
Causes and effects of being permanently online and connected
Previous studies have begun to investigate reasons why people are constantly online, as well as effects of being PO/PC for individuals’ well-being and for social interactions. For example, the use of online social networks was connected to perceived social support through online and offline relationships (Akbulut & Günüç, 2012). Effects research looked at outcomes of constant Internet use for work productivity (Lim & Chen, 2012), the maintenance of social relationships, or compromised attention
Research interest and study aim
Based on the provided definition of PO/PC, our study aims to shed some light onto the suggested perspective by exploring both PO and PC behaviors among college students in Germany, as well as possible reasons for being PO/PC, and to look into associations of PO/PC with well-being and lifestyle as a first step towards understanding potential effects. We have been particularly interested in the question of how often these students go online and connect themselves with others, and in which social
Method
An English language online-survey (Unipark) was fully completed by 196 graduate and undergraduate students at a midsize German university. After excluding 10 subjects, who indicated that they do not use smart devices, and another eight subjects, who skipped questions on being PO/PC, this led to a final sample of N = 178. As the sample comprised university students only, administering an English language questionnaire was unproblematic. German university students are required to study English
Smart device and Internet use in the sample
Although most students had only limited data packages through their mobile networks, almost two-third of the sample indicated that they additionally use WLAN on their mobile devices (Table 2). Therefore, the preconditions for potentially being PO/PC through mobile devices were met in the sample. Android smartphones were most popular, followed by iPhones and tablets. In general, Internet usage was very high in the sample, with 85% of students indicating that they used the Internet very
Discussion
With the current research, we aim at providing a broader understanding of the phenomenon of constant Internet use by bringing together research perspectives that look into various specific aspects of this phenomenon. Our theoretical PO/PC definition supports a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon, and our exploratory study points to a possible operationalization, as well as to some causes and effects of PO/PC. Being online in order to retrieve information from the Internet (PO) or
Conclusion
As so often in the history of media change, new developments provide both a blessing and a curse. As these new technologies proliferate, so will the availability of being PO and PC. It is fair to predict that these new forms of behavior will at least at times conflict with already existing social rules about how to behave in specific contexts. Given standards for privacy are among the most prominent candidates. It is plausible to assume that these standards will be readdressed and
Role of the funding source
No sponsor.
Conflicts of interest
None.
Acknowledgements
We thank Bradford Owen (Prof., University of Southern California) for the great help in revising and proofreading the paper.
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