Meta Analysis of Smartphone Usage for Gratifications Obtained (2016-2019)

Smartphone is mostly used medium today in all age groups. Current study contributes by analyzing the research methodology in context of smartphone usage studies. The population of the study is the “Uses and Gratifications” researches related to smartphone usage published between 2016 and 2019. The research articles were selected by the key words of “smartphone AND gratifications” on Google Scholar and 25 articles were selected for meta-analysis to explore the objectives of approach to uses and gratifications theory, the sampling procedures, the data collection and analyses in the previous studies. It is found that smartphone is a multidimensional construct and scholars have researched them by using the holistic and the reductionist approaches. 64% studies have been found to utilize the quantitative approaches. Both mediated and offline methods are used for data collection in the previous studies. Most of the studies have used survey method. It is recommended to use the validated scales in the context of Pakistani culture

When phones get personal : Predicting Big Five personality traits from application usage

As smartphones are increasingly an integral part of daily life, recent literature suggests a deeper relationship between personality traits and smartphone usage. However, this relationship depends on many complex factors such as geographic location, demographics, or cultural influence, just to name a few. These factors provide crucial knowledge for e.g. usage support, recommendations, marketing, general usage improvements. We use six months of application usage data from 739 Android smartphone user together with the IPIP 50-item Big Five personality traits questionnaire. As our main contribution, we show that even category-level aggregated application usage can predict Big Five traits at up to 86%-96% prediction fit in our sample. Our results show the effect of personality traits on application usage (mean error improvement on random guess 17.0%). We also identify which application usage data best describe the Big Five personality traits. Our work enables future personality-driven research, and shows that when studying personality, application categories can provide sufficient predictions in general traits. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Information seeking behavior in academic assignments using smartphone among elementary school students

This article discusses information seeking behavior developed by elementary school students in completing academic assignments, their reasons for using smartphone to find information related to academic assignments, and students\u27 opinions about the role of school libraries. All data presented in this article are the results of a study on 500 elementary school students in four major cities in East Java Province, Indonesia, namely Surabaya, Malang, Madiun and Malang. This study found that there has been a change in information seeking behavior among elementary students who no longer rely solely on information from textbooks in the libraries. The students have become part of the YouTube Generation that uses more social media (YouTube) via smartphone. According to the elementary school students, YouTube is a social media platform that provides information that is easily understood, while Google offers unlimited information. Students\u27 confidence in the library as a source of information began to fade. Students in the millennial era often perceived libraries as sources of information from school textbooks, not as sources of information that are able to provide broad and varied information. To maintain the existence of school libraries, the role of school librarians that is urgently developed in the future is that librarians must change the way of learning and the choice of information sources among YouTube generation by collaborating with teachers in developing digital and information literacy skills among students

Habitual smartphone use as extended mind-wandering

Smartphone use plays an increasingly important role in our daily lives. Philosophical research that has used first-wave or second-wave theories of extended cognition in order to understand our engagement with digital technologies has focused on the contribution of these technologies to the completion of specific cognitive tasks (e.g., remembering, reasoning, problem-solving, navigation). However, in a considerable number of cases, everyday smartphone use is either task-unrelated or task-free. In psychological research, these cases have been captured by notions such as absent-minded smartphone use (Marty-Dugas et al., 2018) or smartphone-related inattentiveness (Liebherr et al., 2020). Given the prevalence of these cases, we develop a conceptual framework that can accommodate the functional and phenomenological characteristics of task-unrelated or task-free smartphone use. To this end, we will integrate research on second-wave extended cognition with mind-wandering research and introduce the concept of ‘extended mind-wandering’. Elaborating the family resemblances approach to mind-wandering (Seli, Kane, Smallwood, et al., 2018), we will argue that task-unrelated or task-free smartphone use shares many characteristics with mind-wandering. We will suggest that an empirically informed conceptual analysis of cases of extended mind-wandering can enrich current work on digitally extended cognition by specifying the influence of the attention economy on our cognitive dynamics

Prediction of big five personality traits from mobile application usage

Abstract. Smartphones evolved being an integral part of our daily lives and in recent days. Studies show that smartphone usage is correlated to user personality traits. This critical ecosystem is dependent on several variables such as geographic location, demographic traits, ethnic impact or cultural influence and so on. While significant number of demographic, environmental and medical analysis is done based on smartphone usage, there are inadequate amount of study carried out to analyse human personality. All of these information provide pivotal insights for improving user experience, creating recommendations, identifying marketing strategies and for a general overall usage improvement. This study is done with application usage data collected over 6 months from 739 Android smartphone users along with a 50-item Big Five Personality Trait questionnaire. The analysis focuses on the fact that, category-level aggregated application usage is enough for predicting Big Five personality traits achieving 9–14% error which is 86–91% accuracy on average. This study concludes that user personality generates a fundamental impact on smartphone application and application category usage. This work reflects the possible personality-driven research in future and depicts the significance and involvement of application categories in achieving proper accuracy in general traits, while pursuing for personality study

Consumer Media Choice: Towards a comprehensive model

Kuluttajien mediavalintaprosessin ja siihen liittyvien psykologisten ja osin alitajuisten elementtien ymmärtämisestä on hyötyä media-alan yrityksille tuotekehityksessä ja markkinoinnissa. Koska suurin osa median käyttämisen kustannuksista on muita kuin rahallisia kustannuksia, voidaan kysyntää ja asiakastyytyväisyyttä parantaa helposti näitä kustannuksia pienentämällä. Kuluttajien harkintajoukon muodostamisprosessin ymmärtäminen auttaa yrityksiä terävöittämään markkinointiviestintäänsä ja kohdentamaan sen paremmin. Tämän väitöskirjan tavoitteena on käsitteellistää ja mallintaa laaja-alaisesti kuluttajien päätöksentekoprosessia sekä auttaa kuluttajia ja yrityksiä ymmärtämään paremmin kuluttajien päätöksentekoprosessin vaiheita ja eri elementtien roolia päätöksenteossa. Tässä tutkimuksessa pääpaino on valintaprosessin selvittämisessä, eikä niinkään sen selvittämisessä mitä ihmiset valitsevat missäkin tilanteessa. Lähtökohtana tutkimuksessa oli mediatalouden tutkimusala, mikä on kokoelma mediaan ja media-alan yrityksiin liittyviä teemoja. Koska mediatalouden tutkimusala ei kuitenkaan kata kaikkia kuluttajien valintaprosessin kannalta olennaisia elementtejä, on tässä tutkimuksessa hyödynnetty myös monia muita tieteenaloja. Tutkimuksessa käytetään aiheeseen liittyviä teoreettisia viitekehyksiä ja käsitteistöä taloustieteen, viestinnän, kulutustutkimuksen, päätöksentekoteorian, filosofian, psykologian, sosiologian ja markkinoinnin aloilta. Tutkimuksessa kehitellään ehdotettavaa mallia sekä teorian että pienen esimerkinomaisen empiirisen aineiston pohjalta. Empiirinen aineisto on kerätty verkkopohjaisilla kyselyillä vuosina 2014– 2016. Vastaajia oli 336 eri puolilta Suomea. Väitöskirjassa ehdotettu laaja-alainen kuluttajan medianvalintaprosessin malli käsitteellistää valinnan vaiheita ja niiden välisiä suhteita. Median käyttäminen vaatii niukkojen henkilökohtaisten resurssien, kuten ajan ja energian käyttöä. Johtuen resurssien niukkuudesta niiden käyttäminen aiheuttaa kustannuksia ja rajoittaa mediakäyttöä. Tämä tutkimus mallintaa perusteellisesti, miten kuluttajan eirahallisten resurssien niukkuus vaikuttaa hänen mediavalintoihinsa. Väitöskirjassa ehdotettu malli laajentaa perinteistä ajattelutapaa kuluttajavalinnoista (esimerkiksi kustannus-hyötyanalyysin avulla) lisäämällä ja tarkastelemalla empirian avulla edellä mainittujen kuluttajien niukkojen resurssien lisäksi myös ja muita alitajuisesti vaikuttavia elementtejä, kuten brändisuhteita, subjektiivisia kustannuksia, päätöksentekotehtävää, päätöksentekotavoitteita ja päätöksentekostrategioita. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan, miten kuluttajien odotukset ja preferenssit voisivat toimia yhdistävinä linkkeinä kuluttajan ja valintamahdollisuuksien joukon välillä. Ehdotettu malli laajentaa ymmärrystä median valintaprosessista. Empiiriset tulokset tukevat teoreettista päättelyä. Tutkimuksessa pohditaan mahdollisuuksia käyttää mallia myös muihin tarkoituksiin (esimerkiksi äänestäjien päätöksenteon tutkimiseen). Tutkimuksen tärkein havainto on kuitenkin se, miten tärkeää on kiinnittää huomiota päätöksentekotavoitteisiin ja -strategioihin, koska lopulta ne määräävät sen mikä vaihtoehto valitaan.Understanding the deeper psychological decision-making process and the wide range of media choice-related concepts will help media companies develop their products, position them better, and build more attractive brands. Since the costs of media usage are mainly non-monetary, paying attention to these costs has the potential of improving demand and getting more satisfied customers. Understanding the consideration set composition process and the decision-making process will help the companies sharpen their marketing messages and target them better. The purpose of this dissertation is to suggest a comprehensive conceptual model of the consumer decision-making process. Moreover, the aim is to provide tools for consumers and companies in order to make the consumer choice process more understandable and manageable. The main interest is in how the choice is made rather than what is chosen. The starting point has been media economics, which is a collection of themes involving the media industry, economics, and financial issues of media companies. Since media economics does not cover all the essential topics relevant to the choicemaking process, attention in this study was turned to other related theories. Therefore, the approach used is multidisciplinary. Several theoretical frames are examined; for example, economics, communication, consumption studies, decision theory, and also some concepts of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and marketing are discussed. The research is developmental, including theoretical considerations and testing of a small sample of empirical data as an example. The data was collected with web-based questionnaires from 2014–2016. There were 336 respondents from all over Finland. The suggested comprehensive media choice process discusses the steps of the choice and their interrelations. Using media requires the usage of scarce personal resources such as time and energy; their availability and the required amount of them set the limits and costs of the choices. Nevertheless, there is no conceptualization of how the scarcity of consumer resources affects media choices. This study fulfills these shortcomings and combines the elements into a comprehensive model. The suggested model widens the traditional way of thinking about consumer choices (for example, with cost-benefit analysis) by adding and empirically examining the pre-mentioned elements of consumer resources and other subconsciously influencing elements, such as brand relationship, subjective costs, decision task, decision goals, and decision strategies. Furthermore, it is proposed how consumers’ expectations can function as a missing link between consumer and opportunity set. The suggested model develops an understanding of media choice. The empirical results confirm the relevance of these variables. Many implications and other uses for the model (for example, examining voters’ decision-making) are proposed, but the main message is the importance of paying attention to the decision goals and decision strategies since they ultimately dictate what will be chosen

Cognition-aware systems to support information intake and learning

Knowledge is created at an ever-increasing pace putting us under constant pressure to consume and acquire new information. Information gain and learning, however, require time and mental resources. While the proliferation of ubiquitous computing devices, such as smartphones, enables us to consume information anytime and anywhere, technologies are often disruptive rather than sensitive to the current user context. While people exhibit different levels of concentration and cognitive capacity throughout the day, applications rarely take these performance variations into account and often overburden their users with information or fail to stimulate. This work investigates how technology can be used to help people effectively deal with information intake and learning tasks through cognitive context-awareness. By harvesting sensor and usage data from mobile devices, we obtain people's levels of attentiveness, receptiveness, and cognitive performance. We subsequently use this cognition-awareness in applications to help users process information more effectively. Through a series of lab studies, online surveys, and field experiments we follow six research questions to investigate how to build cognition-aware systems. Awareness of user's variations in levels of attention, receptiveness, and cognitive performance allows systems to trigger appropriate content suggestions, manage user interruptions, and adapt User Interfaces in real-time to match tasks to the user's cognitive capacities. The tools, insights, and concepts described in this book allow researchers and application designers to build systems with an awareness of momentary user states and general circadian rhythms of alertness and cognitive performance

Estudio transcultural de usos y gratificaciones asociadas al uso problemático de Internet y el smartphone en estudiantes universitarios

El uso de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) requiere de nuevas formas de adaptación y una formación mediática que potencie la usabilidad de cada dispositivo electrónico. Por tanto, se entiende que los conocimientos y las habilidades adquiridas o desarrolladas, forman nuevas competencias digitales en el usuario. Van Deursen y Van Diepen (2013), destacan que actualmente existen adolescentes que experimentan problemas para recuperar información y procesarla, preceden de un problema cognitivo de orden superior que consiste en la dificultad de seleccionar información acertada de Internet para usarla en varios contextos personales o académicos (Calvani, Fini, Ranieri, y Picci, 2012). A pesar de la importancia que genera la intervención de las tecnologías en la educación y la sociedad, todavía existen más de cuatro mil millones de personas que todavía no las usan. El 90% de las cuales viven en el mundo en desarrollo, mientras que 3 de cada 4 personas están en línea en los países desarrollados y 1 de cada 3 en los países en desarrollo, sin embargo, según el ITU (2017) su utilidad va creciendo de manera constante. El objetivo de la presente tesis doctoral se basa en determinar las gratificaciones de uso y su asociación al uso problemático de Internet y del smartphone (UPI/S), para ello, se incorpora el enfoque de la Teoría de Usos y Gratificaciones (TUG) planteada por Katz, Blumler, y Gurevitch (1974), que señala que el usuario elige una tecnología en particular debido al nivel de gratificación que percibe. Considerando que es un problema asociado a la cultura del contexto nacional. Por tanto, se aplica en participantes universitarios de Chile, Ecuador y España. El desarrollo de la investigación se ha llevado a cabo en tres fases: fase 1) previa y teórica, que se compone de la revisión literaria de fuentes con factor de impacto, definición de objetivos e hipótesis de investigación, el diseño metodológico y la selección de la muestra; fase 2) investigación empírica, que se estructura del diseño, la validación y la aplicación o ejecución de los formularios digitales; y la fase 3) análisis y conclusiones, que abarca tres tipos de estudios: a) el análisis descriptivo por instrumento y nación; b) el análisis bivariado transnacional; y c) el análisis multivariado que describe los modelos aplicados al UPI/S por país. Además, se tomaron en cuenta las siguientes medidas absolutas de ajuste: ?2/df (0 = ?2/df = 3; .01 = p-value = 1) y el error cuadrático medio de aproximación (RMSEA) (0 = RMSEA = .08). Y para la medición incremental del ajuste, se usaron el índice de ajuste comparativo (CFI) (.97 = CFI = 1) y el índice de ajuste normativo (NFI) (.95 = NFI = 1). Por último, para la medición del ajuste parsimonioso, se utilizó el índice de ajuste normativo de empatía (PNFI) (diferencias entre .06 y .09). Para finalizar, se describen las conclusiones a las que ha llegado el estudio, limitaciones y el paso a futuras líneas de investigación, concluyendo con recomendaciones para la formación de próximos investigadores.The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) requires new forms of adaptation and media training that enhances the usability of each electronic device. Therefore, it is understood that the knowledge and skills acquired or developed form new digital skills in the user. Van Deursen and Van Diepen (2013), highlight that currently there are adolescents who experience problems to recover information and process it, they precede a cognitive problem of a higher order that consists of the difficulty of selecting accurate information from the Internet to use it in various personal or academic contexts (Calvani, Fini, Ranieri, and Picci, 2012). Despite the importance generated by the intervention of technologies in education and society, there are still more than four billion people who still do not use them. 90% of which live in the developing world, while 3 out of 4 people are online in developed countries and 1 in 3 in developing countries, however, according to the ITU (2017) their utility goes growing steadily. The objective of this doctoral thesis is based on determining the perks of use and its association to the problematic use of Internet and smartphone (UPI / S), for this, the approach of the Theory of Uses and Gratifications (TUG) is incorporated. By Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch (1974), which points out that the user chooses a particular technology because of the level of gratification he perceives. Considering that it is a problem associated with the culture of the national context. Therefore, it is applied in university participants from Chile, Ecuador and Spain. The development of the research has been carried out in three phases: phase 1) previous and theoretical, which is composed of literary review of sources with impact factor, definition of objectives and research hypothesis, methodological design and selection of the sample; phase 2) empirical research, which is structured on the design, validation and application or execution of digital forms; and phase 3) analysis and conclusions, which covers three types of studies: a) the descriptive analysis by instrument and nation; b) transnational bivariate analysis; and c) the multivariate analysis that describes the models applied to the UPI / S by country. In addition, the following absolute adjustment measures were taken into account: ?2 / df (0 = ?2 / df = 3; .01 = p-value = 1) and the mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) (0 = RMSEA = .08). And for the incremental measurement of the adjustment, the comparative adjustment index (CFI) (.97 = CFI = 1) and the normative adjustment index (NFI) (.95 = NFI = 1) were used. Finally, for the measurement of the parsimonious adjustment, the empathy normative adjustment index (PNFI) was used (differences between .06 and .09). Finally, the conclusions reached by the study, limitations and the way to future lines of research are described, concluding with recommendations for the training of future researchers

Smartphones as steady companions: device use in everyday life and the economics of attention

This thesis investigates smartphone use in naturally occurring contexts with a dataset comprising 200 hours of audio-visual first-person recordings from wearable cameras, and self-confrontation interview video footage (N = 41 users). The situated context in which smartphone use takes place has often been overlooked because of the technical difficulty of capturing context of use, actual action of users, and their subjective experience simultaneously. This research project contributes to filling this gap, with a detailed, mixed-methods analysis of over a thousand individual phone engagement behaviours (EB). We observe that (a) the smartphone is a key structuring element in the flow of daily activities. Participants report complex strategies on how they manage engaging with or avoiding their devices. (b) Unexpectedly, we find that the majority of EB (89%) are initiated by users, not devices; users engage with the phone roughly every five minutes regardless of the context they are in. (c) A large portion of EB seems to stem from contextual cues and an unconscious urge to pick up the device, even when there is no clear reason to do so. d) Participants are surprised about, and often unhappy with how frequently they mindlessly reach for the phone. Our in-depth analysis unveils several overlapping layers of motivations and triggers driving EB. Monitoring incoming notifications, managing time use, responding to social pressures, actually completing a task with the phone, design factors, unconscious urges, as well as the accessibility of the device, and most importantly its affordance for distraction all contribute to picking up the phone. This user drive for EB is used by providers to feed the attention economy. So far, keeping the smartphone outside of the visual field and immediate reach has appeared as the only efficient strategy to prevent overuse