CNRS, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France

Abstract:

This article focuses on digital sociability developed using smartphones and Mobile Social

Network Services (mSNS) in daily commuting. A video ethnography was made involving 35

French intensive users of the Facebook app. This method is based on the combination of context-

oriented recordings made with user-worn camera glasses with mobile screen capture data. These

data reveal how smartphone usage patterns tend to be organized according to mSNS notification

devices and how these mediatized forms of social stress lead users to develop “hyper-connected”

digital sociability.

By examining the distribution of users’ attention between urban settings and screen-based

activities, this video-ethnography highlights how these notifications affect the organization of

Urban Mobilities.

In France

or the United States

, users under 50 years old tend to prefer using Social

Network Services with their smartphone instead of their computer. These new screens are at the

center of the configuration of contemporary network societies (Wellman and Rainie, 2012) and

are fundamental in the way people experience new forms of online sociability. This social

phenomenon invites us to analyze the structuration of this mediated sociability in order to

identify the singularity of their nomadic forms.

manage digital sociability using the technological resources of smartphones. For example, these

applications make use of the camera and GPS to share location-based snapshots (Instagram,

Snapchat, etc.) or meet potential partners (Tinder, Grindr, etc.). These mobile applications are

not really usable from a computer, unlike the first ones that were designed as an extension of

previous fixed position usages.

Even though those two different types of mSNS led to a significant number of studies in

computer science and HCI (Human-Computer Interaction), they were treated unequally by social

sciences (Wang and Ma, 2014). For instance, these studies focused on how native mSNS could

use geolocation technology to promote social encounters (Griswold et al., 2004; Humpfrey,

psychological addiction to mobile phones (Oulasvirta et al, 2012; Salehan and Negahban, 2013).

Most classical sociological approaches do not analyze the nomadic use of mSNS because

they do not seem to have a real impact on relational and social structures. Indeed, sociological

research concurs with the idea that relational structures are relatively stable despite the

development of ICT and social media (Wellman and Rainie, 2012). These works are based on

the observation that individuals use social media by importing ties they have been slowly

developing offline since childhood and throughout their lives. These ties are often considered as

an extension of social capital inherited from their family. In this perspective of the evolution in

relational structures, it may not necessarily seem relevant to focus on the singularity of digital

sociability developed in situations of mobility using mSNS.

This contribution, however, aims to show that this is relevant. These applications increase

the amount of relational stress, displayed on smartphone screens by notification devices, and

promote digital sociability, the characteristic of which is to be hyper-connected and distributed.

The design of social stress with contemporary mSNS is crucial to take into account how these

technologies have significant effects on the structuration of mediatized communications and

interpersonal relationships.

SNS apps extend mobile phone communicational resources by encouraging users to

relationships increases, people favor the most efficient services to communicate with their

(Licoppe, 2004), i.e the ego interacts more with others than it did when social encounters were

links to a circle of close friends instead of trying to extend their personal network to new

relationships (Ishii, 2006; Ling, 2008).

Other studies suggested a more symmetrical conception of this “connected mode” giving

more importance to ICT in the configuration of relational practices. The term “hyper” has been

used to describe the amplification of this mode due to the growing use of email and the way

ubiquitous workplaces tend to foster hyper-connectivity (Quan-Haase and Wellman, 2006). This

concept is interesting because it refers to the way personal networks are redefined by

technological environments in general and mobile phones in particular (Wellman and Rainie,

2012).

We can therefore argue that the use of social network sites promotes these hyper-

connected exchanges, especially since it is possible to perform nomadic participations. Research

has shown that intensive use of social media favors the development of social capital (Ellison,

Steinfield and Lampe, 2007), optimizes the activation of relationships when searching for

information or resources (Quinn and Oldmeadow, 2013) and reinforces personal fulfillment and

civic engagement (Valenzuela, Park and Kee, 2009). Early works on mSNS uses follow this

utilitarian perspective by analyzing how users mobilize their smartphones to extend their uses of

strongly structured around hyper-connected forms of telecommunications.

Implementing sociological research that takes into account the effects of ICTs in a social

structure reconfiguration is not a simple task. To fulfill that goal we decided to adopt a user-

centered approach, considering that their strategies and tactics deserve to be placed at the core of

the study of smartphone appropriation. Even if we emphasize the fundamental part played by the

user, this appropriation process is still profoundly structured by technologies themselves, their

design and “pre-scriptions” (Akrich, 1992) inscribed in interfaces by designers. It is important to

study the distributed dimension of mSNS uses. The agentivity involved in the organization of

nomadic digital sociability is plural. It is distributed between users’ strategies to maintain their

relationships and the way mSNS design organizes this sociability, promoting an increasing

amount of relational stress. This research therefore aims to highlight the role of mSNS interfaces

in the organization of uses and digital sociability.

This assumption of the distributed nature of digital sociability will lead to a more general

sociological hypothesis. Hyper-connected and networked individualism has become a dominant

social form (Wellman and Rainie, 2012) and individuals activate social connectedness (Bayer,

Campbell, Ling, in press) in a way that tends to be reinforced by the growing number of

relational demands displayed by mSNS. We will defend this hypothesis on the basis of a video-

ethnography because this method allows us to describe how the multiplication of relational stress

organizes nomadic digital sociability.

smartphone usage pattern analysis. That has been done through interviews during which

participants explained their uses, the way they manage online sociability and how smartphones

renew their practices. We interviewed 35 intensive Facebook app users aged 18 to 40 years old.

Even though this declarative approach is valuable to gather users’ reflexivity, it does not give

access to usage patterns themselves nor help understand the way mSNS design concretely

organizes digital sociability. A methodological protocol offering fine granularity analysis has

been developed to analyze this role of mSNS design in smartphone usage patterns.

These patterns were identified by analyzing data collected using sensors installed on

participants’ phones. That led to the identification of patterns in the temporal organization of

usage. Indeed, utilization of various functions (phone calls, SMS, Internet, etc.) is positioned

there are too many applications available and their uses vary from one country to another (Falaki

correlated with socio-demographic variables (Bian and Leung, 2015) and contexts of use, in

If these investigations address usage patterns in a general perspective, it is interesting to

complement their findings by collecting fine-grained data in order to understand spatio-temporal

organization of uses and the way mSNS uses are performed according to urban settings. This

research achieved this goal by describing practices using video recordings. This video-

ethnography was made asking users to record their uses during a week, especially during their

daily commuting. To collect contextual data on the move, we asked participants to wear camera

glasses (Mark, Christensen and Shafae 2001; Zouinar et al., 2004). While such a portable set-up

may provide rich detailed data about the ‘natural’ uses of smartphones on the move, it does not

allow catching all the information displayed on the screens. To analyze smartphone usage

patterns, it was useful to synchronize these contextual recordings made with camera glasses with

the video recordings of screen activities (Brown et al., 2013; Licoppe, Figeac, 2015). The video-

ethnographic data presented here is based on the combination of context-oriented recordings

made with user-worn camera glasses and mobile screen captures produced using a screen

recorder installed on smartphones (Image 1).

This method was used with 20 users of our sample (n = 35), 10 women and 10 men

between 18 and 35 years old, living in Paris or Toulouse, who frequently use mobile social

networking applications in situations of mobility, Facebook in particular. This video-

ethnography allowed us to collect 110 video recordings, representing 42 hours of smartphone

commuting in Paris and Toulouse. These video recordings are used to describe the

spatiotemporal configuration of usage patterns in order to identify the circumstances in which

mSNS are used most. Fine-grained data from this study will thus complete works based on large-

scale analyses of smartphone usage using sensors. It seems relevant to start by comparing that

quantitative data with the qualitative data produced here on the basis of a smaller corpus.

especially those that mediate social stress (Pielot, Church and Oliveira, 2014). Even if users

their connected presence. This user-centered study describes how they mobilize these services to

The Facebook app obviously allows this user to make the most of waiting times and

she concretely appropriates and uses it. She chooses to consult Facebook when she does not

defined according to this temporary desire. This finding shows how it is problematic to identify a

Thus, we will focus on identifying regularities in usage patterns while recognizing their

randomness.

The example of Emilie is interesting to highlight this issue. She usually prioritizes

notifications when she uses the Facebook app (see sequences 2, 3, 5, 6, 7). She sometimes

extends her utilization by reading news feed (6, 7) or closes the Facebook app to open another

one (2, 4, 5). She can also start by reading news posts before checking notifications (see

sequences 1, 3, 8), especially because the app opens directly into the news feed she has a quick

look at before reading notification contents.

Even though fluctuations appear within Facebook usage patterns, it is still possible to

identify regularities, especially the fact that users tend to treat notifications that mediatize social

pressure before consulting news feed, as seen with Jennifer’s practices:

This tendency to appropriate Facebook on a consultation mode is particularly linked to

the use constraints in mobile apps, especially among older users as seen here with Betembi, a 36-

year-old nurse:

something or share content. This distinction allows us to represent the time dedicated to

example of Emilie shows she published 4 comments over a week: she wished happy birthday to a

much less frequent than the time spent reading news or writing a reply. This is why users report

However, they put this trend into perspective in emphasizing their appropriation of one-

click participation options, such as the “Like” or “Share” buttons:

daily commuting (Figeac, 2012). Beyond these technical constraints, it is necessary to consider

more generally how chains of use organization can vary from one day to another depending on

to technological device rhythms.

he reaches the posts he has already seen in the morning, published “6 hours ago” (see Image 6),

the application is loading possible new content. We can note how he seizes this loading time as

the “civil inattention” phenomenon described by Goffman (1963, p. 83) to account for this

who use and negotiate these visual courtesies as simple internalized social norms. This visual

This video-ethnography allows us to better understand this process of hybridization

between physical and digital environments because another usage pattern emerges from video

recordings. Users maintain their visual commitments towards screen-based activities at the

beginning of uses. Then, over time, they look around them and visually manage the urban

environment more often. Figure 2 below illustrates this phenomenon.

As shown in the first section, users prioritize notifications when they activate their

for a while to look around. Once they have responded to the social pressure of this relational

mSNS is coupled with the increased frequency of gaze switches towards the surrounding context.

This phenomenon also appears during the longest app chains, when users switch to other

applications such as video games. For example, it is possible to observe, when users play Candy

Crush, how their gaze switches are mostly positioned during the transition phases of the game,

during loading times between levels or when candy groups explode.

In other words, when users appropriate their smartphone in a hyper-connected mode, as

during the opening of an mSNS, they tend to disengage from physical contexts to focus on

technological demands. Social stress mediatized by these media comes first at that time and leads

users to defer gaze switches and their participation in visual forms of coordination. This trend

shows how relational norms at stake in the regulation of mSNS uses can impact the economy of

visual forms of coordination regulating social interactions between strangers.

This video-ethnography completed studies related to the role of notification devices in

uses. The detailed analysis of the temporal organization of the first steps of usage patterns shows

stress; 3. Among these relational sollicitations, they prioritize those depending on social status or

2012).

This social trend refers to a socio-technical phenomenon. The design of smartphones

encourages users to be reactive and respond quickly to social stress mediatized by notification

devices. As mSNS apps amplify this technological push, they tend to promote these hyper-

connected and ubiquitous forms of participation in social network services. The propagation of

this social phenomenon is linked to users’ strategies because they configure these relational

notifications to maximize their reactivity in some contexts, especially in disruptive situations

such as daily commuting.

This video-ethnography shows more precisely how these hyper-connected uses of mSNS

renew visual forms of social coordination in public settings. When they start using mSNS by

answering notifications, users tend to stay focused on this absorbing screen-based activity.

During this hyperconnected phase of smartphone usage patterns, they manage their mobility in

public space by looking around them during breaks and loading times that occur during mSNS

uses. Over time, when they read news feeds, their gaze switches are more frequent. This

phenomenon reveals how visual forms of social coordination are not only organized according to

internalized social norms. They are performed according to rhythms of apps and ways in which

Finally, this video ethnography shows how mSNS design and their notification devices

promote hyper-connected practices in that their configurations converge with users’ social

dispositions. The boring and routine nature of urban mobility leads them to search new sources

of entertainment, especially by experiencing new digital sociability. By allowing them to

multiply and diversify their mediatized exchanges with close friends, mSNS apps push them to

dissociate situations experienced. This progressive substitution of screen-based activities to

anonymous forms of copresence could promote a public space practiced on a “being alone

together” mode (Turkle, 2011).

giving their full attention to their smartphone screen. However, it is too radical to consider that

this contemporary form of “media immersion” is now the dominant form of visual coordination

in public settings. This video-ethnography shows how “being alone together” is rather a

temporary and dynamic form of immersion in media uses, characteristic of a specific phase of

usage patterns, the hyper-connected phase. After that, once they have treated social stress

mediatized by their smartphone, users pay more attention to surrounding environments.

It is also problematic to interpret this media immersion as an anti-social behavior. When

they are focused on their screens, users can dedicate their full attention to their mediatized