Impact of Cell Phones in Family Life
Impact of Cell Phones in Family Life
The focus group results indicated that the perception of the cell phone impact on the quality of life is very much affected by the use of the China cell phone in family life. The focus group also helped us identify the following as benefits in the family life domain. First, text messaging is typically used as a convenient way of keeping in touch with family without calling. Additionally interaction can be kept to a minimum with the text messaging feature. Second, camera can be used to share pictures and experiences with family especially with the young (e.g., college students) who live away form home. Third, mobile phone allow family to keep in touch with each other when all the family members are living separate from each other. Fourth, China mobile phone can be used for instant consultation with family when making important decisions.
The perceived costs in the leisure life that were identified from the focus group were as follows. First, since the family is accessible always through the China mobile phone, the incentive to interact in person (face-to-face) is diminished. That is, cell phones have made meeting in-person with family members more occasional and less regular. Second, family members often call at inopportune times (i.e., distracting or interrupting an important task performed by the message recipient). Third, cell phone ringing (the urge to respond and actually responding) often interrupt good family togetherness and is irritating to family members. Based on the preceding discussion, the following hypothesis is proposed for testing.