Lazy User Theory and Interpersonal Communication Networks

This research examines individual adoption and use of communication technologies through a communication perspective by utilizing concepts from the lazy user theory of solution selection. The user state (individual technology use characteristics) and peer communication are hypothesized to predict switching costs (communication device satisfaction) and laziness. A survey of 687 individuals consisting of college students, Facebook, and Reddit.com users collected data later subjected to exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression. Factor analysis revealed four aspects of user state portable tech-ers, onliners, workers, and relationshipers three types of peer communicators conversationalists, web-referencers, and peer superiors and one type of switching cost, switchers. Three multiple regressions confirmed both hypotheses user state and peer communication account for 14.7 of the variance in switching costs and 11 and 9.9 of the variance in laziness. The study concludes that there are four factors,varying in importance, that an individual considers when adopting a communication device, and three primary strategies for seeking information about communication devices. Switching decisions and laziness are, to some extent, influenced by the user state and peer communication and future research should again examine concepts from the lazy user theory empiricall

Lazy User Theory and Interpersonal Communication Networks

This research examines individual adoption and use of communication technologies through a communication perspective by utilizing concepts from the lazy user theory of solution selection. The user state (individual technology use characteristics) and peer communication are hypothesized to predict switching costs (communication device satisfaction) and laziness. A survey of 687 individuals consisting of college students, Facebook, and Reddit.com users collected data later subjected to exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression. Factor analysis revealed four aspects of user state portable tech-ers, onliners, workers, and relationshipers three types of peer communicators conversationalists, web-referencers, and peer superiors and one type of switching cost, switchers. Three multiple regressions confirmed both hypotheses user state and peer communication account for 14.7 of the variance in switching costs and 11 and 9.9 of the variance in laziness. The study concludes that there are four factors,varying in importance, that an individual considers when adopting a communication device, and three primary strategies for seeking information about communication devices. Switching decisions and laziness are, to some extent, influenced by the user state and peer communication and future research should again examine concepts from the lazy user theory empiricall

Indiana’s Texting-While-Driving Ban: Why Is It Not Working and How Could It Be Better?

This Note will identify and examine obstacles standing in the way of more effective enforcement of Indiana’s texting while driving ban and make recommendations on how to achieve greater success. Part I will take a closer look at what makes texting while driving so dangerous, situating it within the larger context of distracted driving. Part II will then focus on Indiana’s legislative response in particular, breaking down the texting-while-driving laws and discussing impediments to widespread and consistent enforcement. Part III explores alternative strategies for combating those impediments to enforcement, drawing from the approaches of other areas of law and extralegal alternatives, and finally recommending a strategy for incorporating both statutory and nonlegal adjustments that will best allow Indiana law enforcement to police and deter texting while driving

“WHAT’S HAPPENING” @TWITTER: A USES AND GRATIFICATIONS APPROACH

The uses and gratifications approach places power in the hands of the audience and is a helpful perspective when trying to understand media usage, exposure, and effects. However, while the uses and gratifications approach has been applied regularly to traditional media, research explaining why people use new social media networks as well as the gratifications they obtain from them is scarce at best. This thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the uses and gratifications approach as well as the current literature about social media networks. An argument is built within the thesis to study Twitter as one social media network through the uses and gratifications theoretical lens. Research questions are provided and a survey of 216 college undergraduates was conducted. Results show that people use a variety of Twitter functions, that the gratifications sought from Twitter are not the gratifications obtained from Twitter, and that people are careful about the types of information they share on the social media network. Additionally, results suggest that Twitter users obtain more gratifications from the passive functions of Twitter rather the active functions in terms of relational maintenance and entertainment. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future directions are also provided

Adoption Of Social Networks In Business: Study Of Users And Potential Users In Oman

Web 2.0 technologies have become effective tools in recent years, being used by people everywhere for everything. One of the most effective types of Web 2.0 technology is online social networks. Social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, are being used in communication and for building social capital between people. However, they have become important tools in the business world, and business people have realized that social networks are applicable tools in their daily business tasks. There is a belief that social networking and social media are going to transform people’s live styles, change their cultures, revolutionize communication, and reform the existing business models. From this standpoint, this research investigates and attempts to understand the adoption of social networks in business. This research raises three main questions: 1) What is the impact of utilizing social networks in business?, 2) How does business increase opportunities by adopting social networks?, and 3) What are the obstacles that discourage certain organizations from utilizing social networks in their business? The main theoretical objectives of this research are to investigate and explore the opportunities and reasons behind adopting social networks in business, to investigate the impacts of social networks on business and what the consequences are for individual businesses, and to discover the reasons which are preventing certain businesses from adopting social networks. In order to achieve the research’s objectives about 130 questionnaires were distributed to different private organizations in Oman. Some of the initial findings of this exploratory study are that the majority of organizations that participated fall into the ‘services’ category; 57% of the respondents have face-to-face meetings as well as online/email to communicate with their customers, and 81% of these organizations allow their employees to access/browse the Internet during working hours; 31% of the organizations said that the main gain from utilizing social networking is to encourage and empower employees to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links; 62% of the organizations agreed that one of the obstacles preventing them from adopting social networking is the lack of quantifiable business benefits. This study is expected to help businesses that are trying to gain competitive advantage by deploying these new technologies and ideas for the enhancement of their operations

The unConference Toolkit

The unConference Toolkit was developed in preparation for the inaugural Digital Youth & Learning unConference hosted by Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT; dotrust.org) in Nairobi, Kenya in May 2013. We believed an unConference approach could disrupt traditional perceptions of what happens at a knowledge exchange. It is thought that blending research, theory, practice, and policy discourses can lead to more participatory knowledge creation as well as more research savvy organizations, such as DOT's. Knowledge exchanges are seen as one way to accomplish this goal. However, this can be challenging to achieve. And so, with this challenge in mind, DOT set out to conceptualize and deliver a more innovative approach to such exchanges and knowledge mobilization, particularly within a global context: an unConference. Drawing on leading-edge research (focused on ICT, youth, gender, learning and pedagogy, and entrepreneurship) as a catalyst, DOT hosted an unConference focused on changing the way researchers, youth beneficiaries, practitioners, and policy makers interact with knowledge and building a network of like minded individuals to create economic, education, and entrepreneurial opportunities in East Africa. Although unConferences have been around for several decades, they are only now finding their way into more research-informed knowledge sharing events. As we, and our colleagues in East Africa, embarked on this unConference project we struggled to find relevant resources to help us design this event. This toolkit reflects an amalgam of resources we both found and innovated. We hope it will be helpful to others considering a more organic and participatory approach to sharing and mobilizing knowledge.The website where this toolkit is hosted may be undergoing maintenance and the page unavailable. If so, the toolkit is available in STORRE. Click the full text link or STORRE handle to access. http://education.ok.ubc.ca/research/innovative-learning-centre/The_unConference_Toolkit.htm

Patterns of Conversational Interaction in Varieties of English

While research into World Englishes has so far mainly treated conversational interaction as a data source to investigate structural properties on different levels of language organisation, the question whether the linguistic makeup of different varieties and the different cultural backgrounds of their speakers have an effect on talk-in-interaction has been largely ignored. Similarly, studies situated in the field of Conversation Analysis (CA) have mainly concentrated on British or American speakers, with analyses of other varieties of English being almost non-existent. This lack of research is certainly surprising – on the one hand, languages do not exist in vacuo; they are inextricably linked with their use in social interaction. On the other hand, varieties of English are situated in culturally diverse contexts and bring along very different linguistic prerequisites, all of which might have an influence on conversational interaction. In order to close this research gap, this study investigates interactional patterns in two culturally diverse but English-speaking contexts, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Four major research questions are addressed and answered: (1) Is turn-taking in Southeast Asian and Caribbean English face-to-face conversations an orderly process and does it follow the turn-taking framework described for other languages and cultures? (2) What are the different forms, contexts, and frequencies of turn allocation in Southeast Asian and Caribbean English conversations? (3) Which strategies do speakers have at their disposal when it comes to claim or hold a turn in interaction? Do speaker groups differ? (4) Which factors can explain ethnographic reports that characterise Caribbean interactions as ‘interruptive’, ‘anarchic’, or ‘competitive’ (e.g. Reisman 1974)? To approach these questions, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used. First, five hours of unscripted face-to-face conversations taken from the Asian Corpus of English (ACE) and two components of the International Corpus of English (Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago) were transcribed according to the Jeffersonian transcription conventions. As a next step, all Transition Relevance Places (TRPs) were identified and analysed according to the type of speaker change which took place, the transition scenario which was triggered, and the strategies interactants used to claim or hold a turn at talk. The analysis revealed that the basic system of turn-taking in Southeast Asian and Caribbean interactions is an orderly process, largely following Sacks et al.’s (1974) model: Speaker change predominantly takes place at predictable TRPs and conversationalists orient themselves to a 'one-party-at-a-time' rule, thus minimising gaps and overlaps. This finding corroborates CA’s assumption of a context-free and possibly universal conversational infrastructure. Nevertheless, the study also showed differences in how the speaker groups realise transition: While Caribbean speakers tend to self-select more often at the TRPs, Southeast Asian interactants are more willing to actively yield their chance to speak up. Furthermore, the data groups differ in the strategies they prefer when it comes to claim or hold a turn at talk. Even though the overall set of strategies speakers have at their disposal is remarkably similar, the study showed that Caribbean conversationalists employ a greater number of ‘direct’ resources, such as volume upsteps, direct requests for the floor, or recycles, while their Southeast Asian counterparts predominantly use ‘indirect’ strategies, e.g. clicks, tempo-changes, or pivot constructions. As direct strategies are typically associated with ‘interruptiveness’, descriptions of Caribbean interactions as ‘disorderly’ might thus be due to a preference for specific turn-taking strategies rather than competitiveness. These findings illustrate that turn-taking is essentially shaped by and adapted to the specific cultural and linguistic context it is situated in. On the one hand, speakers have different linguistic (and variety-specific) prerequisites; on the other hand, they also have different preferences which lead to one practice or structure being favoured over the other. Any analysis of varieties of English therefore has to consider interactional processes and cultural orientations, as they might reinforce variety-specific features (such as topicalisation). Hence, the study also highlights the enormous potential of research situated at the interface of CA and World Englishes