Fashion and mobile phones

Hi!
Here you find my first draft of the summary of the article. I still have to work on it during the next days!
Have a nice day!

MOBILE PHONES AS FASHION STATEMENTS:
Evidence from student surveys in the US and Japan
James E. Katz
Satomi Sugiyama
Rutgers University, USA



James Katz and Satomi Sgiyama from the Rutgers University in the USA did a survey on the relation between the sense of fashion and the use of mobile phones. They came to the conclusion that nowadays mobile phones are an expression of a sense of self which is also an indicator for the way we see others.

Rationale of the Problem
Traditionally researches on communication technologies were done on how this technology can solve the people’s problems but nowadays it’s not only the function that defines the role which a technology plays in our communicative lives. People always seem to seek for new technology which doesn’t really make the way of communication easier. But why is that and why do people like to implement new technology in their daily routine? To be more precise: how did the bulky mobile phone make its way to a fashion accessory for everyone?For answering this question we first have to define fashion and which role it plays in our every day life. Fashion can be seen as a way to express one’s self and it also plays an important role on the meaning of goods in different cultures. So fashion symbolically transfers information.

Relation: Fashion and the mobile phone
The fashion is always changing in this fast living world. It’s quite important in our society to keep up with the fashion. But it’s not only important to select a fashionable mobile phone it’s also important how it’s worn and (appropriate way) and how it’s used. If someone is able to use a mobile phone with ease it shows some sort of prestige.

APPARATGEIST theory
This theory was introduced by Katz and Aakhus (2002). This theory argues that mobile phones and other technologies don’t have to same meanings to users, non- users or anti- users. There’s a difference between cultures and how these people use technology and what meaning communication has for them. These researches were not yet done on cultures which are considered to be different.

Research questions
1) How can we understand the role of fashion in mobile phone behavior?
2) Is culture important in understanding mobile communication?

Katz did a comparative study on the perception of mobile phones in the US and Korea. He thought that there would be main differences ‘in terms of the image of the mobile phones, including style and fashion considerations’ (Katz). The two countries are known for having quite different cultures but both are main players in the high tech industry.Young people were selected. Green argued that there would be a pattern in the behavior but that young people also have quite different opinions about the importance of mobile phones

The Study
The students were selected arbitrary. They were all college students most of them were between the age of 18 and 21. The study was done in 2002 and about 250 students filled out the surveys in both countries.

The conclusion
The conclusion of the whole study was that fashion really plays a significant role in the world of communication technology in both countries. There was no real difference in the results. The only surprising result was that the US students seemed to be slightly more fashion attentive than the Japanese students. This is surprising because ‘traditionally the Japanese are known as valuing the aesthetic aspects of objects(.)’ and their fable for brand names.
The final conclusion is that there is a highly influence that fashion has on personal communication technology adoption, use and replacement. People who don’t use the mobile phone that often (light- users) or don’t use it at all (non- users) aren’t recognized as being fashionable.

I think that mobile phones became really important during the last few years. Especially young people are being pointed at or looked at in a strange way if they don’t have a mobile phone. Sometimes it’s also said that they don’t have any friends and are not really social accepted by others. It somehow refers to the status that someone has. If you see somebody talking on the phone all the time you automatically expect him to be an important person or just someone with loads of friends.
There are also more and more accessories for the mobile phones which seem to be a must- have for teenagers for example.
This study just reflects what we see every day and what we also have to deal with every day.