According to Horrigan (2009), I’m “Motivated by Mobility” and sub-catagorized as a “Digital Collaborator”. While I do admit that the descriptors given for this group do fairly describe my content sharing habits and use of ICTs in my daily life, the demographic facts are questionable at best. I’m certainly not male, I’m a solid ten years younger than described and while I do consider myself to have obtained a good education, I am not economically well off. Maybe the demographic information was more accurate in 2009, but I believe it would be better to describe those of us in this category as late 30s and under. With the in depth description of a digital collaborator, it could just as easily describe most of the 16-25 year olds of my acquaintance. I can’t think of a single person I know in that age group that doesn’t have a smartphone and/or tablet they use to share content online.
As Horrigan (2009) describes, I am always present, always plugged into the network (p. 8). My home has wireless and you can usually find me on my sofa, surfing on my iPad, texting or emailing on my phone, all while watching streaming television through my Roku box. Even the iPhone is placed on the nightstand at night, so the only time I’m ever offline is while sleeping. It would be sad if I didn’t feel that it helped me be so much more productive as an employee and a student. This belief that the internet makes me more productive was part of what lead me to be placed in this category to begin with, going back to that Pew Internet quiz, question 13. I think the sense of and act of production is an appropriate marker for identifying my type of user, since one of the prevailing attitudes of this category is the value that we put on using ICTs to share our content (p.29).
In the broader category of those of us who are “Motivated by Mobility”, Horrigan argues that “mobile and wireless access tools have a symbiotic relationship” (p.4). This has been true in my own life. As described before, when at home I can be found using up to three internet enabled devices at a time. At work, its a minimum of two devices at once. My devices (save my Roku for television watching, although I think even that is bound to change soon) all communicate with each other, complimenting each other’s uses.
The internet has been a daily presence in my life since at least age 12 and therefore feels to me to be something as part of my natural landscape. For a person like me, each new step forward in internet technology has seemed to be a natural progression, especially the explosion of smartphone/mobile adoption around 2004. However, these have been radical changes for many in our society and around the world. In particular, those who lived in remote areas and may not have been able to get broadband, can now have wireless access pretty easily. Like every other technology that has been adopted in our daily lives (radio and television for example), there are those who will take up the new technology with gusto, and those who will resist with paranoia. Categorizing people into sub-sections of defined user types is useful to those making new developments in the field. They will better understand what is valued by the majority of users, and where the needs are not being met. It is important to chart how attitudes of these groups change over time. There is a tendency to belief that those of us who are superusers are the norm. These studies confirm that we are the outliers and many subgroups exists where the internet plays varying roles in their lives.
There’s no doubt about the symbiotic relationship of mobile and wireless access devices for users motivated by mobility. For those of us in this group, how many can say they only use one device? At work, I’ve got my laptop and my blackberry with me at all times. I also have my iPhone (personal use). At home, I have my work laptop, my personal laptop, my iPhone, my Blackberry and an Apple TV. My wife has an iPad, work laptop, iPhone, etc. We take these for granted at times, but that’s a lot of technology. If our internet and mobile connections both went down, I’d probably feel like I was stranded on a desert island. I guess our vehicles, electricity and running water wouldn’t do much for us.
I do agree with you that the demographics are probably a little outdated. I’m a digital collaborator, which is probably pretty close to true in terms of number of devices (I have everything on the list) and activities (I’m not a blogger, but I do photography as a hobby and post my pictures on Flickr, for example). But at least some of the outdated-ness can probably be attributed to the dramatic rise in smartphone ownership over the last few years.
In an unrelated comment – thank you for getting Vanilla Ice stuck in my head :/
I also think technology has allowed me to be much more productive. While I understand the negative aspects of this (distractions, constant communication, etc.), I use so many tools on my iPad, phone, and laptop that are specifically designed to increase productivity. I even use my phone for a to-do list (although a notepad would work just fine). Obviously, many people find they would do better at their jobs without technology, but I am learning to accept it and use it to my advantage.
I, too, think that Tech is very important for productivity. We should always updated ourselves with the latest technologly, doesn’t matter what age you are, you can always learn something new to imporve yourslef and skills. I know a lot of people who they are in my age category, they refuse totally to learn anything new or even use the internet or iphone to communicate. They think that they are too old for learning or posting a picture or a joke in Facebook,for example. On the other hand, I have other friends who they are 10 years or more older than me and they have all the devices and using it all. After all, I think it depends on people’s personality and what they are doing in their lives for living.
I can understand and agree with numerous statements in your blog. I agree that there are some people in the world who refuse to have anything to do with various forms of modern technology. Case in point: my family and I have serious doubts about sites such as Facebook or Twitter. The main reason is that when something is posted on either of those sites, from what I understand, it is difficult, if not impossible to take back. This could have disastrous results on numerous relationships. So, like those people with paranoia you noted in your response, my family and I simply choose to avoid having anything to do with it.
Jay, this is a subject that was explored in my new media and society class with Dr.Markman last semester. Nothing is really ever deleted from the internet. In addition to that, there are concerns that we are allowing minors to use these platforms before they can really understand the consequences. On top of that, there are services who make their privacy policies (if you bother to read them) vague and difficult to understand on purpose. This makes it hard for people to be aware of the true cost of using these “free” services.
I’m very much in agreement with your assessment of the problems with Horrigan’s categorization of Digital Collaborators. However, it was easier to accept his thinking upon realizing that the extent of the average person’s contribution to online content (writing, art, photography, et cetera) never goes beyond muttering, “Wow, that’s cool” before going back to scroll mindlessly through his or her Facebook Newsfeed. So, if I’m occasionally producing content (other babbling on Twitter about my awesome Chipotle burrito) I’m already above-average. That’s not to say that the lack of creativity among the masses should be the standard for how I challenge myself. However, I think it bears mentioning that very few people actually contribute anything at all.
Jacob, While I do agree with you, in particular about the low response to content as a result of the over-ubundance of it, I think there deserves to be some distinction. I only produce content when its extremely low cost for me to do so. This means that on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the most it really takes it two clicks, Join and Share. With personal blogging, web hosting or the like, there is a lot more effort in play. Even with meme hosting sites like 9gag, it takes work to generate new content even if using a stock photo as the background. The cost of sharing has gone up significantly. I think those types of users deserve their own category, or maybe the quiz simply oversold me, and I should be in one of the lower categories.
I don’t know, Meagan, I think I tend to agree with Jacob here. I can totally see from your perspective saying, “well I don’t post very much,” but really statistically I think there is a a much bigger gulf as Jacob says between posting/sharing *any* content, and not posting/sharing at all. For example, the vast majority of Facebook users never post status updates.
And nobody said it had to be ‘hard’ to count as sharing. Don’t sell yourself short – you’re non-mainstream!
I feel the same way, Jacob.
Sometimes, I reprimand myself for not posting more content online. Simultaneously, I don’t want to regret the quality of my work or create clutter for the sake of it. I sometimes feel a pressure to create content. I tend to produce content willingly as a digital collaborator, yet I don’t consider myself a persistent user. In my mind, the ideal user is incredibly active, and my contributions feel miniscule by comparison. But I have to remind myself there is the other end of the scale – there are those who lurk and truly post nothing at all.
I must admit that I love the last sentence of your blog. ” These studies confirm that we are the outliers and many subgroups exists where the internet plays varying roles in their lives.” That is an extremely insightful comment. For those of us that use the internet daily and interact with ICTs on a regular basis, we can actually forget that there are those who do not utilize the internet as regularly as we do. Just last week, my coworkers and I were shocked when a 60 year old woman bought an iMac (I work at the Apple store) and admitted to us that it was her first computer ever. She had never owned a computer or had internet at her house. Once a week she would visit the library and check her email. The only reason she was buying a computer was because her grandchildren decided to pay for internet at her house, because they felt she needed it. People were startled that someone had gone their entire life without a computer or internet access, but to her it was shocking to now have it in her house. More importantly, she wasn’t even that impressed with it! She is obviously an extreme example of someone who doesn’t use technology, but there are many more like her in the world, of all ages. Its important to realize that there is a wide range of categories for internet users. It is important to realize that to someone who doesn’t use the internet regularly, or even have it in their house at all, those who constantly use the internet are the outliers, not the other way around.