Concerns about mobile phones: A cross-national study

Abstract

Mobile phones allow people to communicate when, where, and with whom they wish. However, users are often troubled to find themselves always available to others. To measure attitudes towards mobile phones, we asked students from universities in five countries what they liked most and what they liked least about having a mobile phone. Responses across all countries indicated that communication was both what subjects liked most and least — enjoying the ability to contact others but feeling trapped by other people’s ability to always contact them. Concerns about dependency on mobile phones corresponded to intensity of usage. Some distinctions between countries reflect variation in available technology, while others may result from cultural factors.