Are the interactivity and participation increasing in the mobile media world？

DU Jin

Anstract：For modern people，mobile phone is far from just a communication tool for making phone calls and sending messages，but a smart thing similar to or even better than a computer.Using mobile phones seems to shorten the distance between people and bring them closer.However，excessive use of mobile phones can sometimes cause serious problems.This article will introduce social network and its popular reasons，smart-phone users’ usage of social network and other aspects so that to explain that excessive use of smart phones will reduce human interaction and participation，and sometimes even lead to serious problems.

Keyword：Mobile Media;Convergence;Interactivity;Participation;Smart-phones;SNS Application

1 Introduction

Thanks to the huge developments of technology，mobile phones are also having their rapid progresses.When mobiles are firstly invented，people might not imagine that the subscriptions of mobile phones could rise to 5 billion in 2010 （Agar，2013，p.2）.In spite of the original functions of phones （making phone calls，sending texts，taking photos，etc.，mobiles today，converging with the Internet，could be used as smaller computer-equal devices.In addition，upgraded mobile phones （also be known as smart-phones） have the same or more functions than some of the computers，and those smart-phones are portable and less money consuming.From apparently look，certainly，those functions such as chatting and websites browsing seem to increase the communication between smart-phone users through ‘making the world smaller’ （Humphreys，2007）.However，overusing smart-phones also causes a lot of individual and social problems in terms of having addiction to phones.

2 Mobile phones and the SNS applications

Although mobile phones might be more experience than original landline phones，they are still having great usage and the usage shows an up trend.A research had shown that in a series of case studies in 2009，none of the five interviewees had used landline phones before，and almost all of them chose mobile phones to be their first devices for communication （Ling and Donner，2009，p.60）.In addition，Ling and Donner （2009，p.61） stated that although mobile phones are phones that are supposed to help users make phone calls at the very first level，the function today has been showing a downtrend that is different from the trend of mobile usage.An increasing number of people use the media functions in their mobile phones，such as taking photographs，recording short films and listening to music.Moreover，the convergence between mobile phones and the Internet has brought more convenience as well as entertainment to users.Mobile phones are endowed with more media-oriented functions that are for users to maintain their social lives，and those functions are generally called SNSs.

SNS could be explained as three phrases： social network service，social network software，and social network site （Dong et al.，2009，my translation）.Based on the literal meanings of SNS，it is easy to figure out that SNSs are focusing on social communication by using network.Furthermore，when SNSs are linked with mobile phones as media platforms，Dong et al.（2009，my translation） believed that mobile SNSs had some advantages than personal computer （PC）-based SNSs in terms of being portable and easier to register by using phone numbers.It is true that these strengths make people prefer to use mobile SNSs than PC SNSs so as to socialize at any time and anywhere.

3 SNS applications usage

SNS applications （apps） attract a lot of users，and the users could be divided into two parts.Some of the users are ‘original’ users who used to get accesses to those social networks through computers，and then keep using the services when the corresponding mobile versions came out.The other users are ‘new’ subscribers who register their accounts through mobile phones.

For the first kind of users，using familiar SNSs on mobile phones or smart phones means having different user experience to the same platform，it might be harder for them to acclimatize the progresses because they may try to find the related functions.However，at the same time，for the second kind of users，Dong et al.（2009，my translation） stated that the latter method of using SNS applications is less time consuming，and there is an example to prove it.On Renren，one of the Chinese SNS applications above，when users open the Renren application for the first time，there would be a striking sentence said ‘Register by mobiles in only 30 seconds’ on its front page.By clicking that sentence，new users would only need to fill in some forms about their names，dates of birth and schools before starting to socialize through this application.

In addition，when focusing on SNS applications usage，CNN has reported that the average frequencies for smart-phone users to check Facebook through their phones are 14 times a day （Taylor，2013）.This number is higher than the numbers for the majority of people using mobile phones to make phone calls.That makes Facebook，which has over 1 billion users，become the most famous website in the world，and its mobile version also has the most subscribers compared to other similar smart-phone apps.But Shih and Oreskovic （2013） claimed that apps such as LINE from NHN Corp，Whatsapp from North American startups，and WeChat from Tencent Holdings Ltd.are now developing extremely fast and showing threaten to Facebook application.The reason why this happened is that these hot applications are combining sending messages （both texts and voice messages） with social networking，and some of the apps are even trying to add platforms for the third parties such as games.Therefore，it is obvious that there might be more SNS apps in the mobile media world and they could easily get success.

4 Interactivity and Participation

The great success for SNS applications seems to have helped a lot in enhancing people’s interactivity and participation （Ling and Donner，2009，p.65）.However，recent researches found that too much applications usage would lead to the addiction to mobile phones before revealing other serious problems even symptoms.People seem to be tethered by the ‘on’ culture such as online，on the websites and on the cellphones （Turkle，2008）.

4.1 Unusual forms of interactivity

The interactivity between individuals should have been maintained well by contacting and communicating with each other for more times，or by meeting each other constantly.However，some of the interactivity today has changed to unusual forms，which might lead to personal troubles and difficulties.

Ling and Campbell （2011，p.13） described an unusual mobile phone phenomenon that young college students would mainly call their friends for help when they get drunk no matter what the time it is.This might enhance the relationship between the callers and the call receivers at first，since there should be a sense of trust between them.But when this kind of connection keeps for a period of time，the receivers might be fretted and the relationship might be influenced.Therefore，it is possible for the misuse of mobile media to cause unusual interactivity，and sometimes the interactivity could become seriously destructive or even illegal.

Some examples could be found in China since Chinese SNS applications added Location Based Services.The Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s app WeChat has two functions related to these services，one is called ‘Look Around’ and the other one is named ‘Shake’.The former one could help find other WeChat users by showing the geography distance between the function user and other users，no matter the other users are on the function user’s contact list or not.Sometimes，students would try to find others who are in the same classroom so as to make friends （Wei，2013）.The latter service ‘Shake’ would ask users to shake their smart-phones when entering its page.After shaking，the service could help people find other users who shake their phones at the same time and link the users together，and the users could choose to add the other people as friend or not.It seems these two functions expand WeChat users’ friendship circles.However，seldom users treat them as normal tools but regard them as guilty tools for swindles，pilferages and sometimes even rapes （Jin，2012，my translation）.Criminals would use counterfeit identities on WeChat to chat with normal users，so that to ‘make friends’ with them before committing a crime.Chinese Youth Newspaper （Chen，2013，my translation） has reported that a man was swindled to lose his money through WeChat at the amount of RMB ￥1.72 million （about ￡172000）.

4.2 Participation and isolation

There are two symptoms of being addicted to mobile media，one is losing control and the other one is escaping （Leung，2008）.Sherry Turkle （2012） said in her TED speech that we are now ‘being alone together’.In her point of view，it is the mobile media technologies that change who we really are and bring troubles to users as well as the others.Turkle （2012） also believed that people could not get enough from each other so they tend to find comfort through ‘the ideal listeners’.Being online forever for those mobile media addicts，means to pay targetable attention on their own interests，as well as not to be alone with a lot of listeners.People put their lives online so that to let the information spread and gain more people’s attention （Turkle，2012）.This causes a result that the mobile phones are now acting like parts of young people’s bodies and they could hardly live without them （Hong et al，2012，my translation）.

It is true that the technology could reduce the distance of geography，but could meanwhile increase the distance of individuals’ hearts.People tend to care about themselves much more than care about the people around，which seems like a sense of selfish，but actually it reveals people’s loneliness，which would generate the self-isolation.

Another TED speech given by Amber Case in 2010 was about the relationship between human beings and the technology devices.Case （2010） thought that we were all ‘cyborgs’ now because of the convergence between the developing techniques and our bodies.Users of mobile media started to maintain and present the ‘second self’ （Turkle，2008; Case，2010），while the time they spent with offline friends and reality acquaintances became less.

5 Conclusion

Generally speaking，this essay begins with some introductions to the mobile phones and the mobile media.Then the essay focuses on the great usage of the mobile-based SNS applications in order to indicate the popularity of the recent mobile media.Thirdly，some unusual interactivity and participation are listed as examples so as to illustrate that too much usage of the mobile media might lead to serious consequences.In conclusion，this essay convinced that the mobile phones and mobile media have brought numerous benefits to the humans.However，users （especially youth） need to be aware of the frequency and time of using.

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作者簡介

杜瑾（1990—），女，漢族，云南省宣威市人，文學碩士，貴陽護理職業學院，研究方向：數字媒體文化及新型社交網絡。