At 01:12 PM 12/19/2007, Barry Wellman wrote:
I recently did an interview with a smart reporter, Eric Weiner, from NPR (US National Public Radio). In it, I opined that one of the most prevalent Qs when people talk on mobile/cell phones is "Where are you"?
I don't know the facts of this case, but it does raise an intriguing question in my mind: If ubiquitous communication breaks down geographical limitations, as many have assumed, why would a question about physical location be the most prevalent thing people ask? Why would it matter where you are if all geographic locations are 2 seconds away on speed dial? I have some data-free suspicions, but I'd be interested in others' ideas. ======================================================== James H. Watt Professor of Communication Director, Social and Behavioral Research Laboratory (http://www.sbrl.rpi.edu) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 110 8th Street, Sage Lab 4518 Troy, NY 12180-3590 email: wattj@rpi.edu voice: (518) 276-4130 or 276-2784 fax: (518) 276-3740 SBRL Office: 3142 Winslow Building
James Watt wrote:
At 01:12 PM 12/19/2007, Barry Wellman wrote:
I recently did an interview with a smart reporter, Eric Weiner, from NPR (US National Public Radio). In it, I opined that one of the most prevalent Qs when people talk on mobile/cell phones is "Where are you"?
I don't know the facts of this case, but it does raise an intriguing question in my mind: If ubiquitous communication breaks down geographical limitations, as many have assumed, why would a question about physical location be the most prevalent thing people ask? Why would it matter where you are if all geographic locations are 2 seconds away on speed dial? I have some data-free suspicions, but I'd be interested in others' ideas.
Anecdotally, but fun: a friend reported when on a trip (flight?) on the London Eye that fellow travellers were excitedly calling up their friends and screeching where do you think I am! And presumably then sending pretty pictures of London from n feet above the Thames.
my two cents: i think it's exactly the different geographical locations of users that makes mobile communication so popular. people want to share their physical locations with others exactly because they are not in the same place, and mobile internet/telephony enables them to do just that: to give their conversational partner a sense of physical context. this information is vital for mobile communication, which does not break down geographical limitations in a physical sense and, as such, does not make any geographical destination available on 'speed dial'. this is not star trek. the fact that we can easily converse over long distances in real time does not mean physical location has lost its key role in providing interactional context. cheers, niels van doorn phd candidate amsterdam school of communications research (ASCoR) On Dec 19, 2007 9:31 PM, Dominic Pinto <dominic.pinto@ieee.org> wrote:
James Watt wrote:
At 01:12 PM 12/19/2007, Barry Wellman wrote:
I recently did an interview with a smart reporter, Eric Weiner, from NPR (US National Public Radio). In it, I opined that one of the most prevalent Qs when people talk on mobile/cell phones is "Where are you"?
I don't know the facts of this case, but it does raise an intriguing question in my mind: If ubiquitous communication breaks down geographical limitations, as many have assumed, why would a question about physical location be the most prevalent thing people ask? Why would it matter where you are if all geographic locations are 2 seconds away on speed dial? I have some data-free suspicions, but I'd be interested in others' ideas.
Anecdotally, but fun: a friend reported when on a trip (flight?) on the London Eye that fellow travellers were excitedly calling up their friends and screeching where do you think I am! And presumably then sending pretty pictures of London from n feet above the Thames. _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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The references I have off-hand are: "I'm waiting where we met last time": exploring everyday positioning practices to inform design Alexandra H. Weilenmann, Peter Leuchovius and Social functions of location in mobile telephony Ilkka Arminen
Could it be that the question where one is is not geographical in nature per se, but contextual in other ways? If I call a friend and ask where he is, the answer could be that he is at work. That could tell me that I should keep it short, because he is probably busy and perhaps scrutinized by colleagues. If I know this person well, I might know that he hasn't been happy at work lately (and up for a beer later on), or that he has been working on a project that is about to be wrapped up (no time for beers). In my experience, the question is often a prelude to other questions, about mood or planning (social) things. In the case of planning social things, it is perhaps not important where one is, but where one could be in T-time. Maybe it is a bit like the 20 Questions game, and that the question is often put forth so soon could be an indicator of its effectiveness in establishing a context update quickly. The word "where" in "where are you now" can perhaps be interpreted as a form of "how" as in "how are you now" in some cases.
I like Jerom's thinking, and I'll go a bit futher -- there's something in us that wants to know if the person we're talking to is suddenly going to be having a side conversation with someone else. If they don't immediately identify for us that they're in a grocery store, and then they start saying something to the cashier, we may feel a bit of a space invasion. By establishing "where" a person is, we're also practically establishing our potential for "privacy" -- we're establishing the conversation's "surrounds" and its "co-presence" with outside others (thanks to Goffman). :-) Deanya Jerom Janssen wrote:
Could it be that the question where one is is not geographical in nature per se, but contextual in other ways?
If I call a friend and ask where he is, the answer could be that he is at work. That could tell me that I should keep it short, because he is probably busy and perhaps scrutinized by colleagues. If I know this person well, I might know that he hasn't been happy at work lately (and up for a beer later on), or that he has been working on a project that is about to be wrapped up (no time for beers).
In my experience, the question is often a prelude to other questions, about mood or planning (social) things. In the case of planning social things, it is perhaps not important where one is, but where one could be in T-time. Maybe it is a bit like the 20 Questions game, and that the question is often put forth so soon could be an indicator of its effectiveness in establishing a context update quickly. The word "where" in "where are you now" can perhaps be interpreted as a form of "how" as in "how are you now" in some cases. _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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Hi, I don't know about in terms of spoken interactions, but I do have a random sample of text messages sent by Norwegians. (We gathered it by questionnaire, not by observing traffic just so that is clear). The actual phrase "Where are you" ("Hvor er du" in Norwegian) was used in 1.4% of all the SMS messages in the corpus. The phrase "where are you" is a type of coordination in many cases. An interesting finding is that about one third of all the text messages were about coordination. We coded the texts - with two independent judges coding into categories - and we found that 33% had to do with coordinating different aspects of daily life. Another 17% were what we called grooming (interactions that did not have a direct instrumental purpose) and then there were a series of other types of interactions. A link to the article is: http://www.richardling.com/papers/2005_SMS_socio-linguistics.pdf Rich L. -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of M. Deanya Lattimore Sent: 20. desember 2007 01:55 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] Where Are You? I like Jerom's thinking, and I'll go a bit futher -- there's something in us that wants to know if the person we're talking to is suddenly going to be having a side conversation with someone else. If they don't immediately identify for us that they're in a grocery store, and then they start saying something to the cashier, we may feel a bit of a space invasion. By establishing "where" a person is, we're also practically establishing our potential for "privacy" -- we're establishing the conversation's "surrounds" and its "co-presence" with outside others (thanks to Goffman). :-) Deanya Jerom Janssen wrote:
Could it be that the question where one is is not geographical in nature per se, but contextual in other ways?
If I call a friend and ask where he is, the answer could be that he is at work. That could tell me that I should keep it short, because he is probably busy and perhaps scrutinized by colleagues. If I know this person well, I might know that he hasn't been happy at work lately (and up for a beer later on), or that he has been working on a project that is about to be wrapped up (no time for beers).
In my experience, the question is often a prelude to other questions, about mood or planning (social) things. In the case of planning social things, it is perhaps not important where one is, but where one could be in T-time. Maybe it is a bit like the 20 Questions game, and that the question is often put forth so soon could be an indicator of its effectiveness in establishing a context update quickly. The word "where" in "where are you now" can perhaps be interpreted as a form of "how" as in "how are you now" in some cases. _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
The location-based service her.no (Norwegian 'her' = here) is currently advertising online with an animation of a close-dancing couple, and the tagline: "Is your partner cheating on you?" Using their buddy-finder service you can discover if, for instance, your partner is on the same location as your best friend, when they both told you they'd be somewhere else. The service requires consent from the owners of the cell phones, so of course the partner could refuse to be localized - but that might in itself require an explanation. Of course another use of this service is for worried parents to watch where their children are going. I've been told similar services are gaining popularity in the US and Japan. It would be interesting to see if this kind of service made people leave their phones at home more often... or start being more honest to each other? I guess it is more likely that the service gets hacked, or that the whole idea will flop. ;) But there is an interesting dynamic, which I guess is common to most surveillance technology: The availability of the technoloy itself makes it hard to say no. Because if you have nothing to hide, there is no problem, right? -- Anders Sundnes Løvlie Research fellow Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo (+47) 40 45 04 85 a.s.lovlie@media.uio.no folk.uio.no/anderssl
A couple quick points: I also lean towards Jerom and Deanya's interpretation. The question isn't just about location, it's an invitation for the other person to tell a bit about their availability. In addition to "where you at?" I've heard a lot of "what are you up to?" and "who are you with?" occurring early in conversations (I study teenagers). This information helps the caller know how to proceed with the conversation (e.g. what are they interrupting, how available is the other at this time). Simply picking up the phone doesn't indicate unfettered availability. As for the Boost adds, they refer to "chirping" (or "bleeping") which isn't quite the same as making a phone call. From my observations, the protocols for building up and tearing down conversations are much less burdensome with chirping. "Where you at" with Boost seems similar to pinging someone on IM, feeling out if the other is available to talk or even maybe even to meet up in person. Although I haven't looked at it, I'd imagine it's often considered reasonable to ignore a chirp (like an IM ping) or to respond with a quick indication that they can't talk right now. - Christo
Looking at my own cell phone, the #1 entry in the "quick message" menu for a T-Mobile Razr cell phone is "Where Are You?" I'm sure its there for a reason. Cheers, Ben Spigel Department of Geography The Ohio State University On Dec 21, 2007 4:01 PM, Christo Sims <christo@sims.berkeley.edu> wrote:
A couple quick points: I also lean towards Jerom and Deanya's interpretation. The question isn't just about location, it's an invitation for the other person to tell a bit about their availability. In addition to "where you at?" I've heard a lot of "what are you up to?" and "who are you with?" occurring early in conversations (I study teenagers). This information helps the caller know how to proceed with the conversation (e.g. what are they interrupting, how available is the other at this time). Simply picking up the phone doesn't indicate unfettered availability.
As for the Boost adds, they refer to "chirping" (or "bleeping") which isn't quite the same as making a phone call. From my observations, the protocols for building up and tearing down conversations are much less burdensome with chirping. "Where you at" with Boost seems similar to pinging someone on IM, feeling out if the other is available to talk or even maybe even to meet up in person. Although I haven't looked at it, I'd imagine it's often considered reasonable to ignore a chirp (like an IM ping) or to respond with a quick indication that they can't talk right now.
- Christo
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participants (10)
-
Anders Sundnes Løvlie -
Ben Spigel -
Christo Sims -
Dominic Pinto -
James Watt -
Jerom Janssen -
M. Deanya Lattimore -
Marcela Musgrove -
niels van doorn -
richard.ling＠telenor.com