Questions for Grant Blank on his 5/9 talk about how "Smartphone dependencies shape internet use and outcomes"

[jamesallenevans]

Pose your questions here for Grant Blank regarding is 5/9 talk Smartphone dependencies shape internet use and outcomes. The distinct characteristic of smartphones is their flexible ability to be personalized to their owners’ needs, goals and lifestyles. How they are personalized can lead different people to depend on them to attain very different goals. Drawing on media system dependency theory I describe three routine uses of smartphones: orientation, play, and escape dependency. These dependencies are associated with different subpopulations and they are major contributors to the amount and variety of internet use. All three also shape internet outcomes but in different ways: orientation dependency has a positive influence on the benefits of use, while play and escape dependencies have a negative influence. The results show that the ways in which people incorporate smartphones into their lives have a strong impact on how they use the internet and what benefits they enjoy. The implications for a future theory of smartphone use are explored. The following readings support the presentation: echo chamber is overstated.pdf; smartphone dependencies.pdf

[CanaanCui]

Thanks for sharing these insights! Given the roles of orientation, play, and escape in smartphone use, how might advancements in AI and machine learning alter these dependencies and affect internet use outcomes?

[QIXIN-ACT]

Thanks for sharing! Given the strong impact of smartphone dependency types on internet use and outcomes, what are the theoretical or practical implications for designing future smartphones, apps, or digital well-being interventions? Also, what are the next steps in your research on smartphone dependencies? Are there any plans to explore how these dependencies might evolve with advancements in technology or changes in social norms?

[zcyou018]

Thank you for sharing! I would like to know do the different forms of smartphone dependency (orientation, play, and escape) influence the social and psychological well-being of individuals in different demographic groups?

[AnniiiinnA]

Given the study challenges common perceptions about the prevalence and impact of echo chambers in a high-choice media environment, how might the findings influence the design of future social media platforms? Moreover, could the approach to measuring echo chamber effects using multiple media and diverse metrics be applied to other areas of media research to provide more nuanced insights into user behavior and media consumption patterns?

[jiayan-li]

Hi Prof. Blank, I really like your way of theorizing the use of mobile devices and can personally relate to the different kinds of dependencies. This seems like a fascinating area. I'm wondering what other avenues there are to study people's mobile use except for surveys. Could you give a little overview of the field?

[kiddosso]

Thanks for your sharing Professor Blank! I wonder if the three types of dependencies are mutually exclusive or they're connected with each other. Is there any deeper consideration when you try to formulate dependencies as such?

[XiaotongCui]

Thanks for sharing! In the discussion, you mentioned that smartphone dependency is related to individuals' socio-demographic characteristics. Could you further elaborate on the implications of this relationship for designing more effective digital inclusion policies and interventions?

[saniazeb8]

Hi,

Thank you for sharing quite interesting work. I would like to know more about the socioeconomic impact of increasing smartphone use in the rural areas of developing regions which are not compatible with infrastructure advancement and might lead to negative social influence and lagging economic efficiency.

[Dededon]

Hi Dr. Black, thank you for the sharing! I really love your echo chamber paper in the sense to assess the echo chamber effects comprehensively. I'm curious about your opinion of the screen-tracking experiments. Such experiments are hard to implement and recruit, because of ethical issues. What do you think might be a good alternative design to this sort of experiment?

[ChrisZhang6888]

Hi Dr. Black, thank you so much for sharing your works! As the development of technology, smart phone has already became an inseparable part of our lives. With that in mind, I am wondering how do the emotional and psychological impacts of smartphone dependencies, such as play and escape dependencies, contribute to long-term mental health outcomes?

[h-karyn]

Considering the study's UK context, how might these findings translate to countries with different media landscapes, particularly where media control is more centralized or heavily biased? It's essential to explore whether the mitigating effect of political interest and media diversity on echo chambers holds in environments with less freedom of the press and higher governmental control over media.

[Daniela-miaut]

Thanks for sharing! I'm curious that, in your opinion, is it possible to introduce critical theory into the study of internet, especially on their impact on human society, and on the ethical part? If possible, how would you implement it and what's your suggestion for young researchers?

[JerryCG]

Dear Grant,

It is interesting to think about functionality of smartphones in 3 aspects, orientation, play and escape, which makes great sense to me. It is also striking to see that only orientation usage can improve benefits. I wonder why play and escape functions do not improve benefits but people are still very passionate about these aspects of smartphone usage?

Best, Jerry Cheng (chengguo)

[bhavyapan]

Thanks for sharing your work! Given that orientation dependency has a positive influence on the benefits of use, while play and escape dependencies have a negative influence, I'm wondering about the way that these dependencies can influence labor productivity and economic behavior -- two mechanisms I could think of, for instance were: they might lead to increased economic activity through enhanced connectivity and information access, or they could potentially decrease productivity due to distraction and time wastage. What are your thoughts on this?

[Zihannah11]

Thank you for sharing. The study found that both media diversity and political interest were associated with a lower likelihood of being in an echo chamber, even for those on the far ends of the political spectrum. However, do you think there could be a point at which extreme political views lead people to restrict their media exposure, even if they are highly engaged in politics? Or are there examples of people who hold strong ideological positions but still make an effort to consume diverse perspectives?

[iefis]

Thanks for sharing the research! I am wondering, in your opinion, how the content-feeding algorithm of social media platforms might mediate the observed effect of orientation dependency in smartphone use.

[ethanjkoz]

The paper providing a counterfactual to the dominant social media echochamber effect was a very interesting read. Particularly, I thought the criticism of narrow definitions/measurements of total media consumption was poignant; people realistically use multiple sources of media to inform themselves about topics in these high-choice environments. I found the analysis quite powerful but was wondering if there were any considerations paid to interaction effects between some of these variables. For example, age, to me, sounds like it could very plausibly have some interactive effect on media diversity and particularly political participation, given that it seems younger generations participate in politics at a much lower percentage than older folks.

[secorey]

Hi Dr. Blank, Thank you for coming to present your work with us. I had a question regarding RQ3 in the "smartphone dependencies" paper you shared. It seems to me that the amount and variety of smartphone use would be correlated based on how these two variables are being measured. Furthermore, the resulting regressions show almost the same significant predictor variables. Thus, I think it's difficult to parse the differences between these two variables. Do you find this to be an issue, and did you consider controlling for amount in your measure of variety or vice versa?

[kunkunz111]

Thank you for sharing this insightful work. I would love to understand more about the cultural implications of rapid digitalization in communities with traditionally low internet penetration. How does this shift impact social cohesion, especially in contexts where digital literacy rates vary widely, potentially leading to increased social fragmentation or altered cultural norms?

[Marugannwg]

I really enjoy the insight from those social psychology studies. Regrading the negative influence of "play" and "escape" usage of internet, I think this sentence really hit to point --

"a digital division in which socially excluded individuals tend to domesticate internet technologies in ways that do not improve their ability to find a job or save money ..... personally gratifying but does not link them to the larger society"

--- This sound to like a positive reinforcement situation to me: the more excluded, the more you tend to engage in technology in an excluded way. From my perspecteive, improve social capability (i.e., the job finding and money saving mentioned here) is exactly something opposed to one's motivation if they are feeling detached from the society in the first place... Today, with the more entertainments format and customized AI avaliable, I wonder if this would become a larger issue, forming more esoteric yet detached online communities and polarized the situation. (Is this opposite to what it is found in the other paper: echo chamber doesn't exist?)

[shaangao]

Thank you so much for sharing your research! I wonder if you could give a bit more theoretical motivations behind classifying smartphone use into the three categories proposed in your research (orientation, play, and escape) -- are these three categories mutually exclusive and exhaustive? Is this categorization more data-driven or theory-driven?

[MaxwelllzZ]

Thank you for sharing. Could you elaborate on the specific methods and data you used to identify and categorize the three distinct smartphone dependencies—orientation, play, and escape—in your study? Additionally, how do these dependencies manifest differently across various subpopulations, such as age groups or socioeconomic statuses, and what implications might these patterns have for shaping future internet usage and the development of digital media strategies?

[ymuhannah]

Thanks for sharing! In your analysis of smartphone dependencies, you categorized dependencies as orientation, play, and escape. Could there be other significant categories, such as productivity or social connectivity, that could also be considered in future studies?

[Hai1218]

Hi Professor Blank,

Your study provides an interesting view of the echo chamber effect in high-choice media environments. Could you elaborate on how your findings might influence future research directions in media studies and political communication, especially concerning the methodologies used to study media consumption patterns and their impact on political polarization?

[Weiranz926]

Thank you for your sharing! My question is: Considering the distinct dependencies and subpopulations identified in your study, how might socioeconomic factors influence smartphone dependency patterns? Additionally, do you foresee any public policy interventions that could mitigate the negative impacts of play and escape dependencies on diverse populations?

[Zhuojun1]

How do you think the emergence of new technologies like AI-driven personal assistants and augmented reality interfaces on smartphones might alter the existing patterns of dependency you identified? Specifically, could they potentially change the balance between orientation, play, and escape dependencies, and if so, how might this affect internet outcomes and user benefits?

[fabrice401]

Interesting works! Despite the common fear that people only consume media that reinforces their existing beliefs, leading to polarization, your research suggests otherwise. Then I am wondering how can digital platforms and social media companies use the findings of this study to design algorithms or features that discourage the formation of echo chambers and encourage exposure to diverse viewpoints?

[ecg1331]

Thank you so much for sharing your research! It was interesting to read how your research supported a lack of echo chambers, which is not what we hear very often.

I just have a clarification question, I understand that those who are more politically interested seek out other information so they are not in an echo chamber, but is just having a diverse range of media enough to take those who are politically interested 'out' of the echo chambers? Would the algorithms not be similar in each media source?

Thank you!

[wenyizhaomacss]

Dr. Blank, thank you for this insightful study on smartphone dependencies and digital inequality. I'm curious about the potential to combine survey data like you used with digital trace data from smartphones to further unpack these dependency relationships. What opportunities and challenges do you see in leveraging mobile phone logs, app usage data, or other digital breadcrumbs to validate and extend your findings around orientation, play and escape dependencies?

[ksheng-UChicago]

Thanks for sharing. I find the analysis of the three routine uses of smartphones to be very helpful in understanding person-mobile device interaction. I have a question about spatial data collection using smartphones. One significant change shifting from PCs to smartphones is mobility. Powered by GPS, spatial data is booming with the use of smartphones. Have you seen any difference in the meaning of spatial data collection within your three routine use frameworks?

[lbitsiko]

Why are we expecting motivations, goals, habits, etc. to be more stable? In particular, I wonder whether there is an underlying determinism view lurking there. Or is it the case that since MSD understands individuals as agents, the definition of technology through its use is highlighted? This is, in principle, anti-determinist. In any case, how could we incorporate the well-known McLuhan aphorism from media studies, "The medium is the message"?

[lguo7]

Thank you for sharing your research! How might the inclusion of direct measures of algorithmic influence or exposure (e.g., personalized social media feeds) impact the study’s findings on the prevalence and nature of echo chambers?

[jingzhixu]

Thanks for sharing this inspiring work. As for the regression result, just wondering if there's chance that this is a self-fulfilling prophecy that the user's belief in expected benefit of smart phone use shape their smartphone dependency pattern and the using behavior with the observed positive outcome turn back to be sort of motivation to them for increasing use of smartphone. I'm just interested by the fact that the strongest variable in the model is amount of use, could there be something like an optimum level in the context of diminishing return, if possible here.

[essicaJ]

Thanks for sharing! I am wondering how might the findings of this study be influenced by the specific cultural, social, and economic context in which it was conducted. To what extent can the results be generalized to other contexts? Thanks so much!

[beilrz]

Thanks for sharing these interesting works. For the echo chamber, I was wondering would people tend to view information from different channels differently, even though they still tend to consume information from various media? For example, people with right-leaning political ideology only trust right-leaning media, while they still view other type of media.

[franciszz992]

Thanks for sharing! In the echo chamber paper, did you explore the role of the algorithm implemented in the platform to suggest to users the very content they are interested in / agree with? Echo chamber in this case is created by the platform and may be hard to avoid. Do you think people are actively trying to aviod getting into echo chamber, or are mostly passively taking in whatever viewpoints they are provided with by the algorithm? Thank you.

[yunfeiavawang]

Thanks for sharing! It is illuminating to know the three routine uses of smartphones: orientation, play, and escape dependency. It was also stated the first use is positive and the other two are negative on the benefit of using smart phone. I was wondering how you define positiveness, which seems like a judge of value that could transform along the history of technology.

[HongzhangXie]

Thank you for introducing your intriguing research. Your study profoundly demonstrates which demographics are more susceptible to smartphone dependency and the impacts of different types of smartphone addiction. I am curious whether we can analyze the specific time allocations that are consumed due to smartphone dependency. For instance, if the time spent on smartphones is merely replacing time previously dedicated to watching television or playing video games, then the benefits of altering this habit might be minimal. On the other hand, if reducing smartphone usage leads to increased time spent on learning, that would represent a positive shift.

[QichangZheng]

Thank you for sharing these thought-provoking questions about media consumption, technology's impact on individuals, and the potential effects of emerging AI and AR technologies. It's fascinating to consider how people's ideological leanings might influence their trust in different media sources, even if they still consume a variety of media. Additionally, the question of whether we should expect motivations, goals, and habits to be stable raises important considerations about determinism and how technology is defined through its use. As new technologies like AI assistants and AR interfaces emerge, it's crucial to examine how they might alter existing patterns of dependency and affect the balance between orientation, play, and escape. How do you think these technologies could potentially reshape our relationships with media and technology, and what implications might this have for individuals and society as a whole?

[kexinz330]

Thank you for sharing your research! Could you elaborate on the methodologies you used to measure and categorize smartphone dependencies and how you ensured the reliability and validity of your findings? Additionally, based on these findings, what do you think are the most significant implications for the future theory of smartphone use, and how should future research build upon your work? Thanks!

[hchen0628]

Thank you very much for sharing! The classification of dependency types is very interesting and valuable. I am curious whether this categorization of dependencies is related to an individual's inherent tendencies to use tools (such as similar dependencies possibly existing with computers or books), or if it is exclusive to smartphones. Are these dependencies associated with the inherent nature of smartphones?

[MaoYingrong]

Thank you for sharing your work! Regarding smartphone dependency types, I have two questions: First, do they overlap with each other sometimes? How to deal with those situations in this research? Second, in the discussion part, it mentions that there are many other types of dependency in previous studies, such as communication and expression dependency, what are their impacts?

[binyu0419]

Thank you for sharing! I am wondering how to measure three smartphone dependency variables constructed from PCA factor scores?

[Jessieliao2001]

Thanks for sharing! I'm curious about how do the different dependencies on smartphones, as outlined by media system dependency theory, influence consumer behavior and spending patterns in different market segments?

[yuzhouw313]

Hello, Professor Blank, Thank you for sharing your work with us! Considering the impact of missing data and the decision to remove certain variables from your regression analysis, how did the exclusion of income and right-left politics affect the robustness and generalizability of your findings, especially given that these factors traditionally play significant roles in studies of political interest and media diversity?

[yuy123337]

Hi professor Blank. Echo chamber is such an important idea that everyone in this digital age should be aware of. I am particularly interested in whether the strategic use of diverse media sources in a high-choice media environment influence the degree of political polarization among individuals, and what mechanisms might allow politically uninterested individuals to avoid echo chambers despite the prevalence of polarized networks on platforms like Twitter? Also, individually, how can we avoid to be caught in echo chamber except using diverse media?

[zhian21]

Thank you for sharing the works, Professor Blank.

The study investigates the relationship between political interest, media diversity, and the likelihood of individuals being in echo chambers, using data from the Quello Search Project in the UK. It finds that individuals with high political interest and media diversity are less likely to be in echo chambers, challenging the notion that echo chambers are prevalent across the population.

I am particularly interested in how might the findings of this study influence the design and implementation of digital platforms to foster a more informed and diverse political discourse.

[zhuoqingli526]

Thank you for sharing these insightful research! In high-choice media environments, media diversity and political interest have been shown to significantly reduce echo chamber effects. Which specific functions or applications of smartphones (such as social media, news aggregators, search engines, etc.) do you believe most effectively promote users' exposure to diverse information? Do these functions exhibit different effects across various types of smartphone dependencies (such as orientation dependency, play dependency, and escape dependency), thereby further influencing users' access to political information and echo chamber effects?

[YutaoHeOVO]

Dear Professor Blank,

Thank you for your presentation. I have a (minor) question on the echo chamber: could it be the case that echo chamber is the result of feeding system/habit? People get into echo chamber because they are kept on getting those information. Even though there is abundant information available, users just don't bother active search for that.

Best, Yutao

[Brian-W00]

The article discusses the moderating role of political interest and media diversity on the echo chamber effect, especially in highly selective media environments. Has media diversity had more of an impact on preventing individuals from falling into the echo chamber than political interest in this study, and how do the results of specific data analyses support this conclusion?