35,897 research outputs found
Smartphones
Many of the research approaches to smartphones actually regard them as more or less transparent points of access to other kinds of communication experiences. That is, rather than considering the smartphone as something in itself, the researchers look at how individuals use the smartphone for their communicative purposes, whether these be talking, surfing the web, using on-line data access for off-site data sources, downloading or uploading materials, or any kind of interaction with social media. They focus not so much on the smartphone itself but on the activities that people engage in with their smartphones
Roots Reloaded. Culture, Identity and Social Development in the Digital Age
This edited volume is designed to explore different perspectives of culture, identity and social development using the impact of the digital age as a common thread, aiming at interdisciplinary audiences. Cases of communities and individuals using new technology as a tool to preserve and explore their cultural heritage alongside new media as a source for social orientation ranging from language acquisition to health-related issues will be covered. Therefore, aspects such as Art and Cultural Studies, Media and Communication, Behavioral Science, Psychology, Philosophy and innovative approaches used by creative individuals are included. From the Aboriginal tribes of Australia, to the Maoris of New Zealand, to the mystical teachings of Sufi brotherhoods, the significance of the oral and written traditions and their current relation to online activities shall be discussed in the opening article. The book continues with a closer look at obesity awareness support groups and their impact on social media, Facebook usage in language learning context, smartphone addiction and internet dependency, as well as online media reporting of controversial ethical issues. The Digital progress has already left its dominating mark as the world entered the 21st century. Without a doubt, as technology continues its ascent, society will be faced with new and altering values in an effort to catch-up with this extraordinary Digitization, adapt satisfactorily in order to utilize these strong developments in everyday life
Ambivalence in digital health: co-designing an mHealth platform for HIV care
In reaction to polarised views on the benefits or drawbacks of digital health, the notion of ‘ambivalence’ has recently been proposed as a means to grasp the nuances and complexities at play when digital technologies are embedded within practices of care. This article responds to this proposal by demonstrating how ambivalence can work as a reflexive approach to evaluate the potential implications of digital health. We first outline current theoretical advances in sociology and organisation science and define ambivalence as a relational and multidimensional concept that can increase reflexivity within innovation processes. We then introduce our empirical case and highlight how we engaged with the HIV community to facilitate a co-design space where 97 patients (across five European clinical sites: Antwerp, Barcelona, Brighton, Lisbon, Zagreb) were encouraged to lay out their approaches, imaginations and anticipations towards a prospective mHealth platform for HIV care. Our analysis shows how patients navigated ambivalence within three dimensions of digital health: quantification, connectivity and instantaneity. We provide examples of how potential tensions arising through remote access to quantified data, new connections with care providers or instant health alerts were distinctly approached alongside embodied conditions (e.g. undetectable viral load) and embedded socio-material environments (such as stigma or unemployment). We conclude that ambivalence can counterbalance fatalistic and optimistic accounts of technology and can support social scientists in taking-up their critical role within the configuration of digital health interventions
Anticipatory Mobile Computing: A Survey of the State of the Art and Research Challenges
Today's mobile phones are far from mere communication devices they were ten
years ago. Equipped with sophisticated sensors and advanced computing hardware,
phones can be used to infer users' location, activity, social setting and more.
As devices become increasingly intelligent, their capabilities evolve beyond
inferring context to predicting it, and then reasoning and acting upon the
predicted context. This article provides an overview of the current state of
the art in mobile sensing and context prediction paving the way for
full-fledged anticipatory mobile computing. We present a survey of phenomena
that mobile phones can infer and predict, and offer a description of machine
learning techniques used for such predictions. We then discuss proactive
decision making and decision delivery via the user-device feedback loop.
Finally, we discuss the challenges and opportunities of anticipatory mobile
computing.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figure
Living Without a Mobile Phone: An Autoethnography
This paper presents an autoethnography of my experiences living without a
mobile phone. What started as an experiment motivated by a personal need to
reduce stress, has resulted in two voluntary mobile phone breaks spread over
nine years (i.e., 2002-2008 and 2014-2017). Conducting this autoethnography is
the means to assess if the lack of having a phone has had any real impact in my
life. Based on formative and summative analyses, four meaningful units or
themes were identified (i.e., social relationships, everyday work, research
career, and location and security), and judged using seven criteria for
successful ethnography from existing literature. Furthermore, I discuss factors
that allow me to make the choice of not having a mobile phone, as well as the
relevance that the lessons gained from not having a mobile phone have on the
lives of people who are involuntarily disconnected from communication
infrastructures.Comment: 12 page
The effect of the eHealth intervention ‘MyPlan 1.0’ on physical activity in adults who visit general practice : a quasi-experimental trial
Physical inactivity is one of the major risk factors for poor health in the world. Therefore, effective interventions that promote physical activity are needed. Hence, we developed an eHealth intervention for adults, i.e., ‘MyPlan 1.0’, which includes self-regulation techniques for behaviour change. This study examined the effect of ‘MyPlan 1.0’ on physical activity (PA) levels in general practice. 615 adults (≥18 years) were recruited in 19 Flemish general practices, for the intervention group (n = 328) or for the wait-list control group (n = 183). Participants in the intervention group received the web-based intervention ‘MyPlan 1.0’ and were prompted to discuss their personal advice/action plan with their general practitioner. Participants in the wait-list control group only received general advice from the website. Self-reported physical activity was assessed with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) at baseline and after one month. A three-level (general practice, adults, time) regression analysis was conducted in MLwiN. Significant intervention effects were found for total PA and moderate to vigorous PA with an increase for the intervention group compared to a decrease in the control condition. However, there was a high dropout rate in the intervention group (76%) and the wait-list control group (57%). Our self-regulation intervention was effective in increasing physical activity levels in adults. Future studies should consider strategies to prevent the large dropout from participants
Why do People Adopt, or Reject, Smartphone Security Tools?
A large variety of security tools exist for Smartphones, to help their owners to secure the
phones and prevent unauthorised others from accessing their data and services. These range
from screen locks to antivirus software to password managers. Yet many Smartphone owners
do not use these tools despite their being free and easy to use. We were interested in exploring
this apparent anomaly. A number of researchers have applied existing models of behaviour
from other disciplines to try to understand these kinds of behaviours in a security context, and
a great deal of research has examined adoption of screen locking mechanisms. We review the
proposed models and consider how they might fail to describe adoption behaviours. We then
present the Integrated Model of Behaviour Prediction (IMBP), a richer model than the ones
tested thus far. We consider the kinds of factors that could be incorporated into this model in
order to understand Smartphone owner adoption, or rejection, of security tools. The model
seems promising, based on existing literature, and we plan to test its efficacy in future studies
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