Twenty-five novice users of a new mobile communication device, allowing them to be always connected to their e-mail, e-calendar and organizer via GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), were closely tracked for a period of three months. The benefits of being always connected, to be accessible at all times and places make technology-enabled people almost automatically adapt the new mobile communication device to their daily lives for both instrumental and intrinsic uses. The results of this longitudinal field study suggest that people's motivations for using mobile communication technology are initially influenced more strongly by their perceptions about the expected use, which is more task-oriented. Over time, due to the quick habituation of the new mobile communication device important, initial gratifications, like permanent access and social interaction, appear to be less manifest reason for using the mobile communication device and become more latent, while gratifications like fashion/status and entertainment appear to become more dominant. Moreover, the boundary between work and personal life slowly disappears as people can easily use mobile communication technology simultaneously for personal and business purposes in both social and work-related contexts.
In a long term study on Blackberry users, Peters and ben Allouch REF report on findings how mobile communication technology affects on boundaries between work and personal life by fading the distinction between the two contexts, as the technology is used simultaneously for personal and business purposes.
Always connected: a longitudinal field study of mobile communication
Telematics Informatics
Telematics Informatics
Computer Science