Mizuko Ito Japanese Youth and the Mobile Internet Annenberg Center for Communication, USC Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus

Presentation Overview  Overview of Japanese youth and keitai (mobile phones)  Particularities of youth demographic  Ethnographic examples of new social patterns and norms in keitai usage  Focus on mobile /messaging

Statistical Overview  Keitai ownership  Students (12 years and up): 75.7%  Overall: 73.7%  Subscribe to mobile internet service  Student mobile phone users: 94.3%  All mobile phone users: 81%  Source: Video Research Survey July 2002  Keitai average monthly payments  Students: ¥7186 ($59)  Overall: ¥5613 ($46)  Source: IPSe Marketing Inc. Survey December 2002

Mobile Summary  Short message/ users  Students: 95.4%  Overall: 75.2%  Over 5 messages/day  Students: 91.7%  Overall: 68.1%  Teens send 2X more s than twenty somethings  Views message immediately  Students: 92.3%  Overall: 68.1%  Source: Video Research Survey July 2002

Ethnographic Study  Interviews with 24 high-school and college students in winter 2000  Communication diary research with 17 users (8 high school and college students) in 2002  Focus on keitai as someplace, somewhere technologies

Youth and Politics of Place  Home context  Freedom of action  Spatially distanced from peers  School context  Limitations to social contact  Spatially co-present  Public Transportation and Street  Freedom of motion  Prohibition against voice calls on public transport and many restaurants

Messaging and Mobile  Used in particular places for particular kinds of communication  For lightweight contact  When unsure if recipient is available for communication (eg. Late night)  When there are limits to voice calls  Classroom, public transportation, restaurants  Akin to note-passing, paging

Mobile Peer Spaces  Youths generally keep open channel with 2-5 intimate friends  Couples, in particular, maintain ongoing exchanges when apart  Expectation that these friends/partners are always available  Text-messaging creates virtual place of continuous connectivity and background awareness

Peripheral Awareness  “Are you up?”  “I’m walking up the hill now”  “Good night”  “The TV show was awful wasn’t it”  “I was out drinking until 2 and just woke up”

Enhancing Co-presence  Augmented co-presence  “This lesson is a pain”  “Where are you standing?”  “Try asking so and so”  “Check what time the train leaves”  Extensions of co-presence  “Thanks for the lift”  “I forgot to give you back the CD”

I am constantly checking my mail with the hopeful expectation that somebody has sent me a message. I always reply right away. With short text messages I reply quickly so that the conversation doesn’t stall.