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URJHS Volume 14

Mobile Technology: Its Effect on Face-to-Face

Communication and Interpersonal
Interaction
Lucas Lengacher
Huntington University

Abstract

Technology has influenced the world in many positive ways. I researched and examined the
question of how technology effects communication? Technology is great for communication
when it comes to connecting with family and friends who live far away. But what are the
effects of say: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, text messaging, etc. on every day face-to-face
conversation? This paper explores the possibility of how increased exposure to communicating
pathways may actually lessen communication. Mobile technology is anything one can do on
phones. Due to smartphones and the availability of them one can access the internet,
therefore being able to do countless things on their phones. So the research is inclusive to
texting or voice calls, but also includes the countless applications one can download on a
phone. Unfortunately, research shows that mobile technology is affecting communication in a
negative way when it comes to sociability and face-to-face communication. Researchers have
found that mobile technology can decrease communication and intimacy. The results too many
research studies seem to point out is that mobile technology lessens social interaction and
face-to-face communication do to the availability of stimulants online, which requires less
outside stimulants such as interaction and body-to-body sociability. Not only does mobile
technology decrease social isolation it seems that internet usage can cause feelings of
loneliness and busyness as well.

Mobile Technology: Its Effect on Face-to-Face Communication and Interpersonal

Interaction

Mobile devices are everywhere we turn, they have for many people become an essential part
of life, not only are they essential in communicating they are critical in the way one accesses
the internet. It is seldom we find a cell phone where we cannot use its internet capabilities to
shop, play, calculate, read, communicate, etc. We live in a time in which we are permanently
visible and available at all times through our many internet outlets. One needs only look
around at the average social setting and see the impact of this technology on society. We see
silent tables at the café, quiet train commutes, and expressionless faces on walks. There seems
to be “a disconnect with all this connection” (Tuck, 2014). The availability of instant
communication seems to distract us from the communication opportunities in front of us. It
not only seems to lessen face-to-face communication but multiple studies have shown that
internet usage can cause feelings of loneliness and busyness. Studies have also exposed the
negative effects they have on body-to-body sociability, psychological well-being, and intimacy.
Because internet access is standard in most all mobile devices we will include it in the term
mobile technology. Texting is still included in the term but the term mobile technology is not
necessarily inclusive to just texting communication. To understand mobile communication one
must first see how it has grown and changed.

In 1997, no 13-year olds that were studied owned a mobile device, but by 2001 90% of teens
interviewed owned one (Ling, 2004). A study was conducted by a teacher, Richardson, to see
this impact on his classroom. He is a teacher who has experienced the impact of mobile
phones in his classroom. He teaches theatre, and this is what he said, “the freedom of choice
and control that students associate with their use of smartphones…shapes the way in which
they experience and respond to live theatre” (Richardson, 2014). He is not only seeing a
disruption but also a misusage of the responsibility giving to students by these devices.
Another study backed this study up when it found that Facebook users reported lower mean
GPA’s and reported spending fewer hours per week studying on average then Facebook
nonusers (Munoz, 2013). Richardson’s study also brought out the strong temptation audience
members feel to check their phones when being involved with something else. In a theatre
setting one must perform to keep the attention of the listeners. If this is the case for a medium
of entertainment with the sole purpose of pulling people away from everyday life and
transporting them to a different place and time, how must an everyday person in an everyday
situation perform to maintain the listeners’ attention? Ultimately, conversation would seem to
get too hard and people will start retreating from it because of the performance one would
have to maintain to be more interesting then what is going on mobily. Some may retreat as far
as to then develop feelings of loneliness.

There is a growing body of research examining the relationship between personality traits and
Internet use. Some researchers have noted that heavy internet users seem alienated from
normal social contacts. Users feel a bigger sense of loneliness (Amichai-Hamburger & Ben-
Artzi, 2003). Studies have been done on loneliness and the individual’s well-being, this
research shows that male internet users who experience loneliness had no relation to
neuroticism, or extraversion. But for women loneliness is significantly related to both
neuroticism and the use of social services in the internet (Amichai-Hamburger & Ben-Artzi,
2003). This study showed that extroverts and introverts use different services on the internet.
The main service used by all personalities and most everyone is Facebook.

A study showed that when Facebook usage is low, the positive relationship between
extraversion and empathic social skills is strong (Chan, 2014). As Facebook usage increases
there is a decline on positive extraversion and empathic social skills (Chan, 2014). This may
suggest the possible replacement of real-life relationships with digital ones. This replacement,
that seems to be occurring decreases body-to-body sociability. In recent sociological
examination many scholars have argued for the increase of social isolation, for example
internet use has seemed to have a “displacement effect” on physically proximate interactions
(Fortunati, Taiplae, & Luca, 2012). A study conducted by Martha Munoz also supports these
findings. She found that computer usage lacks the nonverbal and environmental cues that are
present in face-to-face communication, which makes one feel less burdened when interacting
with others in an online context rather than a face-to-face interaction (2013). In her study she
also found, when studying two groups of people, that the group who preferred online
communication was perceived less socially skillful than those who preferred face-to-face
interactions (Munoz, 2013).

This lack of preferred face-to-face interaction can lead to social intimacy problems pointed out
by Larissa Hjorth and Sun Sun Lim (2012). They stated that with the mobility of the internet
mobile media both “blur and reinstate boundaries between online and offline worlds” (Hjorth
& Lim, 2012). It is important to know that intimacy has many levels. This intimacy mentioned
does not refer to intimacies between lovers, family, or friends; it is mentioned more in the
context of society and how internet communications infuse private and public spaces. With
this infusion comes a cheapening of “social labor," which refers to the way that conversation
and interaction can easily be directed and lead by what is going on mobily (Hjorth & Lim,
2012). Ultimately, conversation is no longer hard because tweets, posts, and articles give all
the material one needs to start and maintain a conversation, though the shallowness of
conversation comes into critique.

One can not only be directed and lead by communication, one can also feel in control. The
most significant category indicated in a study done by Madell and Muncer showed that young
people often liked to use communication media to communicate because it affords them more
control over the interaction (2007). Communicating using text messaging, and instant
messaging allows one time to stop and think before a response can be made. But also it allows
participants in the conversation to retain the conversational nature of interaction that is
preferred. This type of communication also allows for more socially accepted gaps in the
conversation, ability to conceal the truth, and the use of emoticons to elaborate the meanings
of statements (Madell & Muncer, 2007). But in viewing text-messaging negatively, one can
easily be misunderstood, especially comments of a sarcastic nature. Text messaging, instant
messaging and emailing allows for communicators to review and edit what is being said. Not
only does mobile technology seem to affect our social skills and interactions. It also affects our
psychological well-being.

Strong social ties are the relationships that generally buffer people from life’s stresses, which
ultimately lead to better social and psychological outcomes (Kraut, Patterson, Lundmark,
Kiesler, Mukopadhyay, & Scherlis, 1998). With the increased use of technology and the
potentially of the internet reducing the importance of physical proximity, social ties may falter
leading to ill health. Addictions develop when people depend on a technological device to
produce favorable outcomes (Walsh, White, & Young, 2010). Over time the activity becomes a
primary source of pleasure and a major focus in an individual’s life. There is actually a scale
that determines ones symptoms of addictions related to mobile phones. Problematic mobile
phone usage was defined as continued mobile phone use in spite of negative outcomes and
societal restrictions. In a study performed researchers found that younger people, extroverts
and people with lower self-esteem were more likely to engage in problematic phone use,
which leads to unhealthy behavioral problems, such as not sleeping well (Walsh, White, et al.
2010). This research about people with lower self-esteem using technology more often, in
some ways, showed that users may be using the mobile phones as a form of self-esteem
enhancement. Another study was performed which found that people with this addiction were
also more likely to have symptoms of other pathological behaviors, such as substance abuse,
dependency, and gambling (Kraut, Patterson, et al. 1998).

The study of Walsh and White also explored self-identity, which developed over time as
externalized roles and behaviors became an internalized part of the person’s self-concept
(2010). Mobile phones have been recognized as a form of self-expressive identity (Fidalgo,
Telleria, Carvalheiro, Canavilhas, & Correia, 2013). Self-identity has also been found to predict
level of mobile use. These findings suggest it would be worthwhile to study whether self-
identity is related to the level of involvement that people have with their mobile phone.

Research has consistently shown that many young people believe mobile phone use enhances
social inclusion by allowing them to remain in contact with friends at all times. Some users
even express feelings of being valued and loved when they receive contact on their mobile
phones. The opposite is just as significant. When the users don’t receive contact, feelings of
being uncared for by others begin to take hold (Fidalgo, Telleria, et al. 2013). This lead one
columnist to write, “the greatest gift [one] can offer another person is your ability to listen, to
let that person feel that you are intent on what he or she is saying. That you have all the time
in the world for [that person]” (Coleman, 2000).

Method

Participants

The participants of this study were selected from the undergraduate population of Huntington
University. With the availability and accessibility to the undergraduate peers around me the
graduate and doctoral students present at Huntington University were excluded. Huntington
University students would be a very good representation of what I want to study due to their
diverse backgrounds and their similar social economic status. This sample represents the
millennial generation and their knowledge of mobile technologies. This sample is a good
representation of how mobile technologies have affected face-to-face communication and
social interaction since this generation is the first generation that has been, since a young age,
saturated with technology exposure. 257 students were surveyed. From that population
students were extracted by eliminating factors of the survey, due to them having an Android
phone, were field studied and questioned further. Participates had to have an Android to
participate in the field study because the application used to track mobile data usage was only
programed for Android devices. This may have limited the possible population of participants
due to the fact participants have many different types of phones.

Design

At the beginning of the study a survey was released to the Huntington student body asking
respondents to answer questions trying to understand their position and attitudes on phone
usage. How often they use their phone? As well as how they feel about when others use their
phones around them? This survey was released to the undergraduate population of
Huntington by email. The survey included questions about usage as well as situations where
they would be interacting with people who may possibly be on their phone. Respondents had
to rate on a scale (Highly Disagree to Highly Agree) on how they feel about these situations.
One of the demographic questions of the survey asked the respondents if they have an
Android phone. If they did they were asked to leave their email I then contacted them with the
instructions for Phase 2.

Phase 2 of the study asked each participant to download an app called RescueTime©. This app
running in the background of their mobile device tracked how much one uses their phone
automatically. It tracked how many times one picks up their phone each day, and it breaks
down each day to see when users are on your device most often. This app also tracked what
applications the user used most often throughout the day. RescueTime© breaks the amount of
phone usage down into categories. The most common categories was communication and
scheduling, reference and learning, social networking, entertainment, and uncategorized. This
is an invisible app. Once the participant sets it up and as long as the app is running in the
background, they never have to open it again. After a week of using this app, RescueTime©
sent the user a summary of what they did on their phone that week. I then instructed the
participants to forward their data summary, received from RescueTime©, to me. After I
received participants weekly summary I had them fill out a relationship satisfaction survey
(Appendix A). Participants were asked to think of a relationship in their life and take the survey
thinking of that specific relationship. The survey developed by David Burns was initially
developed to assess ones most intimate relationship. It did not have to be a romantic
relationship, but it had to be one of significance. The test is designed to asses ones most
intimate relationships, that being a partner, friend, or family member. The participants filled
out each box and the results were calculated. The results of the survey told me how satisfied
that person was with their relationships. The results of the relationship survey and tracking
data log from RescueTime© was compared and analyzed to find a correlation between amount
of time spent on a mobile phone and how satisfied the participants felt with their designated
relationship.

Results

After the allotted time came to a close the results of the responses from the survey, the data
from the app and the additional survey, relationship satisfaction, was analyzed. The survey
provided very good insight into the mobile phone habits of the respondents. I found that
almost 60 percent of people felt disconnected from others when they were on their phone
(Appendix B). To assess peoples habits I asked how often one thought they spend on their
phone each day. I also asked how many times they checked their phone during a standard 50
minute class period and after waking up how much time passes before they check their phone.
I found that 70 percent of people check their phone within the first five minutes of the day
(Appendix C). A surprising 88 percent of people felt disconnected at dinner because of people
they were eating with using their phone (Appendix D).

When measuring my findings with a Pearson r correlation I found that phone use is negatively
correlated with discomfort in approaching others on their phone at a measure of -.129, which
is significant at the .05 significance level. It was also negatively correlated with sharing space
with friends who are on their own phones at a significance level of -.167, holding its
significance at .01. However, heavier phone users report higher levels of discomfort with
others when the respondent is on his/her phone. Also, I found that higher phone usage brings
acceptance of others high usage. This causes intimate environments to be perceived similarly
to more public environments in terms of phone usage. Those who are heavy phone users are
more likely to find acceptable the use of said technology in both spaces, either intimate like
dinner or chapel or public, standing in line, or walking down the sidewalk.

After the survey I did an in depth study of seven individuals’ mobile phone usage. With the
lowest phone usage of one participant at 4 hours and 49 minutes to a drastic increase of
another user of 16 hours and 50 minutes. When averaged this between the seven people
studied I found that on average a person spends 10 hours a week on their phone. When
calculated monthly that’s 50 hours, yearly that’s over 24 days out of the year an average
person between the ages of 18-24 spends on their mobile device (Appendix E). The majority of
participants spent their majority of time in the category of communication and scheduling,
entertainment, social networking, and uncategorized. The entertainment category consisted of
music, Android gallery, YouTube, and camera. Uncategorized included Snapchat, various
websites, Facebook messenger, and Android systems. Utilities included calculator, Task
manager, alarm, Android settings, and Android systems. There were also categories or
Business, Shopping, and News categories.

The relationship survey that was given to the participants who downloaded RescueTime© did
not seem to record the behaviors I thought. There was no significant relationship between how
much time they spend on their phone and relationship satisfaction. All seven participants were
between slightly satisfied to moderately satisfied in their relationships despite how much time
spent on their mobile device.

Discussion

Findings were not what I anticipated; there was a negative correlation between phone usage
and approachability, initiation, and proximity in context of communication, which did not
support my hypothesis of, when phone usage increases relationship satisfaction will decrease.
This study did support some of the other research I found. In Kraut, Patterson, et. al’s research
which found that social ties is what helps people handle life stressors. My research found that
many people felt disconnected from others when they were on their phones. This may cause
weaker social ties.

Also in the research of Larissa Hjorth and Sun Sun Lim (2012) who found that the mobility of
the internet can “blur and reinstate boundaries between online and offline worlds.” This lack
of preferred face-to-face interaction can lead to social intimacy problems pointed out by Hjorth
and Lim (2012). It seemed in my study that there seems to be more of a graying of space.
There was no black and white areas of when, where, and how often one should use their
phone. Most situations were acceptable. It was found to be okay to use ones phone in intimate
environments like dinner, it was also found to be acceptable to use them at university chapels.
The intimates environments were treated the same as the public environments such as
standing in line or walking down the sidewalk. This can be due to the fact that people spend a
lot of time on their devices. High usage brings high acceptability.

References

Amichai-Hamburger, Y., & Ben-Artzi, E. (2003). Loneliness and internet use: Computers in
Human Behavior, 19, 71-80. Retrieved from www.elseviar.com/locate/comphumbeh

Burns, D. (1993). Ten Days to Self-Esteem. New York, NY: HarperCollins

Chan, T. H. (2014). Facebook and its effects on users’ empathic social skills and life satisfaction:
A double-edged sword effect. CyberPsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 17(5), 276-280.
doi:10.1089/cyber.2013.0466

Coleman, J. (2000). Is technology making us intimate strangers? [Special issue]. Newsweek,

135(131), 12.

Fidalgo, A., Telleria, A. S., Carvalheiro, JR., Canavilhas, J., & Correia, JC. (2013). Human being as
a communication portal: The construction of the profile on mobile phones. Revista Latina de
Comunicacion Social, 68, 545-565. doi:10.4185/RLCS-2013-989en

Fortunati, L., Taipale, S., & Luca, F. (2012). What happened to body-to-body sociability? Social
Science Research, 42, 893-905. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.12.006

Hjorth, L., & Lim, S. (2012). Mobile intimacy in an age of affective mobile media. Feminist
Media Studies, 12(4), 477-484. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2012.741860

Kraut, R., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S., Mukopadhyay, T., & Scherlis, W. (1998).
Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-
being? Academic Search Premier, 53, 1-25. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.53.9.1017

Ling, R. S. (2004). The mobile connection: The cell phone’s impact on society. Amsterdam:
Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann.

Ling, R. S. (2012). Taken for grantedness: The embedding of mobile communication into
society. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Madell, D. E., & Muncer S. J. (2007). Control over social interactions: A important reason for
young people’s use of internet and mobile phones for communication? CyberPsychology &
Behavior, 10(1), 137-140. doi:10.1089/cpb.2006.9980

Munoz, M., (2013). Preference for online communication and its effect on perceived social
skills and academic performance (Master’s thesis). Available from Online Computer Library
Center, Inc. database. (UMI No. 858587514)

Richardson, J. (2014). Powerful devices: How teen’s smartphones disrupt power in the theatre,
classroom, and beyond. Learning, Media and Technology, 39(3), 368-385.
doi:10.1080/17439884.2013.867867

Tuck, G. (2014, April 15). Look up [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Z7dLU6fk9QY

Walsh, S. P., White, K. M., & Young, R.M. (2010). Needing to connect: The effect of self and
others on young people’s involvement with their mobile phones. Australian Journal of
Psychology, 62(4), 194-203. doi:10.1080/00049530903567229

Appendix A
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Very Moderately Slightly Neutral Slightly Moderately Very
Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Satisfied Satisfied Satisfied
1.
Communication
and openness
2. Resolving
conflicts and
arguments
3. Degree of
affection and
caring
4. Intimacy and
closeness
5. Satisfaction
with your role in
the relationship
6. Satisfaction
with the other
person’s role
7. Overall
satisfaction with
your
relationship
Total score on
items 1- 7 ^

Total Level of
Score Satisfaction
0 – 10 extremely dissatisfied
11 – 20 very dissatisfied
21 - 25 moderately dissatisfied
26 – 30 somewhat dissatisfied
31 – 35 somewhat satisfied
36 – 40 moderately satisfied
41 – 42 very satisfied
* Relationship Satisfaction Survey modified from Ten Days to Self-Esteem (1993), by David D.
Burns

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D
Appendix E
Communication Entertainment Social Uncategorized Reference Utilities
& Scheduling Networking &
Learning
Participant 15h
46m 57s 54m 14s 5 h 12 m 4h 57m 1h 4m 1h 56m
1 7m
Participant 7h
4h 54m 7m 57s 21 m 29s 41m 45s 52m 49s
2 2m
Participant 47m 4h
2h 4m 49s 13m 49s 1h 34m 2m 26s
3 27s 49m
Participant 30m 12h
12m 59s 8h 49m 1h 12m 27m 21s 1h 9m
4 22s 49m
Participant 8h
3h 2m 16m 29s 1h 55m 1h 12m 2h 11m
5 27m
Participant 15m 5h
29m 39s 1h 12m 49m 46s 2h 26m
6 37s 45m
Participant 48m 16h
9h 59m 52m 29s 1h 43m 49m 34s 2h 35m
7 34s 50m
11h 23m 8h 8m 5h 4m 70h
21h 49m 35s 13h 15m 29s 9h 41m 6s
18s 30s 53s 49m