Age-old practices in the 'New World': A study of gift-giving between teenage mobile phone users

Alex S. Taylor; Richard Harper

doi:10.1145/503376.503455

Age-old practices in the 'New World': A study of gift-giving between teenage mobile phone users

Alex S. Taylor^*, Richard Harper

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

In this paper, we present an overview of the data collected from an ethnographic study of teenagers and their use of mobile phones. Through the data, we suggest that teenagers use their phones to participate in social practices that closely resemble forms of ritualised gift-giving. Such practices, we claim, shape the way teenagers understand and thus use their phones. We go onto show that this insight into everyday, phone-mediated activities has practical implications for mobile phone design. Using an example, we describe how teenagers' gift-giving practices can inform design, providing an initial means to conceptualise future emerging technologies.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI '02: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	439-446
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Print)	1581134533
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/503376.503455
Publication status	Published - 20 Apr 2002
Event	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2002 - Minneapolis, MN, United States Duration: 20 Apr 2002 → 25 Apr 2002

Conference

Conference	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2002
Abbreviated title	CHI'02
Country/Territory	United States
City	Minneapolis, MN
Period	20/04/02 → 25/04/02

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Cell phones
Ethnography
Gift-giving
Mobile phones
SMS
Teenagers
Text messaging

Access to Document

10.1145/503376.503455Licence: All Rights Reserved

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/503376.503455Licence: All Rights Reserved

Cite this

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title = "Age-old practices in the 'New World': A study of gift-giving between teenage mobile phone users",

abstract = "In this paper, we present an overview of the data collected from an ethnographic study of teenagers and their use of mobile phones. Through the data, we suggest that teenagers use their phones to participate in social practices that closely resemble forms of ritualised gift-giving. Such practices, we claim, shape the way teenagers understand and thus use their phones. We go onto show that this insight into everyday, phone-mediated activities has practical implications for mobile phone design. Using an example, we describe how teenagers' gift-giving practices can inform design, providing an initial means to conceptualise future emerging technologies.",

keywords = "Cell phones, Ethnography, Gift-giving, Mobile phones, SMS, Teenagers, Text messaging",

author = "Taylor, {Alex S.} and Richard Harper",

year = "2002",

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doi = "10.1145/503376.503455",

language = "English",

isbn = " 1581134533",

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booktitle = "CHI '02: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

note = "Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2002, CHI'02 ; Conference date: 20-04-2002 Through 25-04-2002",

}

Taylor, AS & Harper, R 2002, Age-old practices in the 'New World': A study of gift-giving between teenage mobile phone users. in CHI '02: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 439-446, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2002, Minneapolis, MN, United States, 20/04/02. https://doi.org/10.1145/503376.503455

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N2 - In this paper, we present an overview of the data collected from an ethnographic study of teenagers and their use of mobile phones. Through the data, we suggest that teenagers use their phones to participate in social practices that closely resemble forms of ritualised gift-giving. Such practices, we claim, shape the way teenagers understand and thus use their phones. We go onto show that this insight into everyday, phone-mediated activities has practical implications for mobile phone design. Using an example, we describe how teenagers' gift-giving practices can inform design, providing an initial means to conceptualise future emerging technologies.

AB - In this paper, we present an overview of the data collected from an ethnographic study of teenagers and their use of mobile phones. Through the data, we suggest that teenagers use their phones to participate in social practices that closely resemble forms of ritualised gift-giving. Such practices, we claim, shape the way teenagers understand and thus use their phones. We go onto show that this insight into everyday, phone-mediated activities has practical implications for mobile phone design. Using an example, we describe how teenagers' gift-giving practices can inform design, providing an initial means to conceptualise future emerging technologies.

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KW - Ethnography

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KW - SMS

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Y2 - 20 April 2002 through 25 April 2002

ER -

Age-old practices in the 'New World': A study of gift-giving between teenage mobile phone users

Abstract

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Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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