Smartphones in the Social World

By Mike Howie

It is the era of the smartphone. They seem to be everywhere — in every pocket and purse, intrinsically connected to every thumb, ear, and eyeball. At times they’re useful. Other times they’re distracting. But how do they affect our real, in-person, face-to-face social lives?

Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) studied people in cafés — spaces designed for socializing — to figure out why we so frequently reach for our phones when we’re with other people. Their article, “The Constitutive Practices of Public Smartphone Use” published by MDPI, details findings from interviews with 101 people and observations of 108 social situations in cafés. The researchers found three primary functions of smartphone use:

• Pause a conversation
• Shield interaction
• Share something with others

Hold, Please

Pausing a conversation to check your phone may seem rude, but that isn’t always the case. It depends on how you do it, suggests Professor Aksel Tjora of NTNU, one of the authors of the study.

“If you explain to the person you’re with why you have to postpone your physical interaction, it’s perceived as more polite than if you just disappear,” Tjora said. “At the same time, some people may appreciate a short break from a longer conversation, and using the phone can also be a natural, interwoven part of the social interaction that takes place in the café.”

Shielding interaction is more subtle. In a group, it can be used to avoid a certain topic. In one-on-one interactions, it can be used to show that you’re similarly busy while your partner checks their phone. It can even be used as an excuse to physically step away from an interaction.

Take a Look at This

As opposed to the first two functions, sharing content enhances an interaction. For example, you might look up a fact to fill in gaps in the conversation, or you might share a picture to show what words alone can’t convey.

There are, of course, other uses for smartphones in and around social interactions. Before meeting, you might use it to kill time while waiting for your partner to arrive or, alternatively, ask where in the café your partner is sitting. Perhaps you check the time or missed messages during a natural pause or change in conversation, when people generally find smartphone use to be acceptable. And, of course, smartphones are useful for taking pictures both separately and together.

Our relationships with smartphones are complex. With so much functionality crammed in one small device, they can easily be seen as hindrances to socializing. But that’s not necessarily true. They can, in fact, be very real social tools.