Priyanka Matanhelia’s Research Blog on Mobile Phone Usage Amongst Youth

Mobile phones are becoming a popular device to reach out to target population worldwide.

In this post, Mobiles for health – American Style, Corinne Ramey gives three examples of how mobile phones are used in America to  reach out for target population for health related information.

1. Case 1: In the state of Georgia, mobile phones are being used to monitor the health of diabetes patients. The study participants sent glucose readings and photos of the meals they ate. Professor Elizabeth Mynatt, director of GVU Center of the Georgia Institute of Technology said, “You can ask people what they have for breakfast, and it sounds healthy, but then you see the proportions on the plate, and not so much.”

2. Case 2: Internet Sexuality Information Services, Inc (ISIS), a California-based nonprofit focused on sexual health has been using text messaging campaigns such as SEXINFO and HOOKUP for providing sexual health-related information to people.

3. In Phoenix, Arizona, which is the ninth-most ozone polluted city in America, residents are using mobile phones to keep track of air quality. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) sends out “high pollution” alerts to its 900 text message subscribers.

In Africa, Katrin Verclas writes in her post “Rapid Response, a m-health Platform” that a m-health platform on RapidSMS has been developed for the Millennium Villages Project with support from the UNICEF Innovation Group. The program is used by health care providers in the field to facilitate and coordinate activities through SMS text messages.

Yesterday, I went to watch Julie & Julia, a movie portraying the life of two women – Julia Child & Julie Powell, born in different eras but in love with cooking. While Julia Child  an American who lived in Paris in 1920s, learnt French cooking and wrote books about it. Julie Powell lives in New York, is fascinated by Julia Child’s cooking and blogs. She became famous because she cooked all the 524 recipes in Julia Child’s book “Mastering the art of French cooking” in 365 days and blogged about it.

What I found interesting about the film was that it made cooking so glamorous and interesting. Off course, I have seen cooking shows on television!!! But Julia Child played by Meryl Streep came across as an absolutely delightful person – in love with life and food. As I write this, I think Julia Child reminds me a wee bit of Tarla Dalal. The famous Indian author of cookery books and TV host. However, the comparison ends there.

I quite liked Amy Adams as Julie Powell living the life of a New Yorker, hating it and finding solace in cooking. I was quite intrigued by Powell’s fascination with Julia Child and cooking. I always think that New York as a city has so much to offer, so it is quite surprising that someone would find interest in cooking and staying indoors.

The movie also made me think about the tradition of cooking. In the contemporary world, the art of traditional cooking is getting lost. When I was growing up in India, one of the biggest worries my family had was teaching me to be a good cook. I had to undergo a training at home to be a good cook. Off course, I went to a Home Science college and learnt all about food, nutrition and cooking. But my family thought it was very theoretical and I quite agree I could never make a dish taste like the way my mother would make it. I always tell my aunt who is a wonderful cook to write all her recipes for me. I am not sure when I will ever get time to cook all of them.

The movie was absolutely hilarious, but I must warn that you should have food before you watch it otherwise you may find it difficult to sit through it. Watching all that delicious food and the wonderful comments about food made me want to eat. And I have to confess that I ate a big piece of chocolate cake, without feeling guilty and savoring the taste of every bite…mmmmm!!!

Next time, you eat home made food cooked by that someone special….just appreciate it!!! You never know, she might turn into a cooking star!!!

Urban youth between the ages of 15 and 30 years are the main market for India’s mobile service providers. Youth in India are also the largest consumers of mobile VAS.

Virgin Mobile India has signed a deal with Nimbuzz to provide instant messaging features to their mobile phone customers. Through Vchatter, customers will be able to log on to multiple instant messaging services with a single login.

While many would believe that social networks sites (SNS) offer the opportunity to mingle with a different segment of people than in real lives, a study (2008) by Eszter Hargittai suggests that college-age students in USA are more likely to be using online networks to interact with their friends in real life. The results suggested that students of Asian origin were more likely to use Friendster and Xanga whereas Hispanic students were more likely to be present on MySpace. Therefore, indicating that possibly students may be sticking with their own kind even on SNS.

When it comes to gender, more women are likely to use MySpace than men, however, on other SNS there is equal representation of both. Besides ethnicity and gender, the other factors that affected SNS use were parental education (high school or college degree), living context (at home or campus) and experience with Internet use. Facebook and Xanga users were more likely to have a parent with a college degree, were not living at home and used Internet for more hours weekly. MySpace users were more likely to be Hispanic, female and have a parent with less than high school degree.

Thus despite possibilities of leveling the field, SNS use of college-age students indicate that this is not yet happening.

I came across this article, which says that a mobile game featuring Paris Hilton will soon be available on mobile phones in India via Reliance. The game has been developed by a French company called Gameloft. The article raises an interesting point about the impact of Western icons and values in India. Does the availability of this game suggests that mobile phones are another tool which is exposing young people in India to Western cultural products? Or the fact that buying mobile games is a personal choice for the user therefore, may not necessarily spread western cultural values like the mainstream media?

Today since morning, I woke up thinking stillness. I looked outside my balcony and the trees were still, the sky was cloudy, as if pregnant with thousands bolts of lightning inside, waiting for the right time to explode. I paused and looked outside. I switched on my computer but couldn’t get myself to sit at home and work. So I decided to walk down to the cafe.

Right now, I am sitting at the New Deal Cafe. The cafe has big windows and when you look outside, you can see beautiful flowers of different colors – yellow, pink, white. There is greenery all around. The weather is perfect, you really don’t need air-conditioning. The walls are painted orange and blue. The tables are covered with red linen. The chairs are antique. At one end of the cafe there is a raised stage which comes alive usually in the evenings when there are musical performances. A man sitting behind the wall is playing away on the keyboard, filling notes in an otherwise quiet afternoon. The sun plays hide and seek, the leaves swaying gently as if dancing to the rhythm of this beautiful sunny perfect restful afternoon.

On a restful afternoon, I experience a perfect symphony. Harmony that is so missing from our lives. At this time, my fingers flow on the keyboard, words waiting to be written. Sometimes life just becomes effortless, as it does now. Life is in the pauses, we might run and hurry… but what we really need are the pauses… to immerse ourselves in this beautiful symphony and experience the harmony.

Sometimes the little things add such an interesting twist to a very mundane, routine life…..

I found this excellent stats on mobile phone usage in India by  Arun Prabhudesai on his blog Trak.in. I have summarized the main points in my post, you can read the full report here.

- India’s mobile subscribers base at the end of April 2009 has grown to 403.66 million (source: TRAI).

- India adds 10 – 12 million subscribers on an average monthly.

- The near-saturated urban India has 270 million mobile subscribers.

How is urban India using their mobile phones?

SOCIAL NETWORKING:

- Almost 10% of Delhi mobile subscribers use social networking services from their mobile phones topping the list, followed by Mumbai (6.4%) and Chennai (4%).

- Orkut is the favorite social networking site frequented by approximately 11.4% of mobile users, followed by Facebook used by 6.7% and hi5 by 6%.

SEARCH ENGINE:

- Approximately 5.76 million mobile subscribers use Google, making it the most used search engine to be accessed via mobile. The second position goes to Yahoo used by 4.58 million mobile users.

- Almost half (45.6%) urban mobile subscribers use Google followed by Yahoo (30.9%).

INSTANT MESSAGING:

- Yahoo Messenger is the most used IM application among Indians. Almost 18.3% use Yahoo and 17.8% use Google Talk. (not much difference)

MOBILE CONTESTS:

- 86% of mobile users have participated in SMS contests initiated by TV shows followed by 50% participating in newspaper SMS contests.

- Almost 60% of females and 49% of males have participated in at least 1 – 3 SMS contests and 51% of males and 41% of females have participated in more than 4. (very high numbers)

SMS SERVICES:

- The most popular SMS service appears to be jokes (accessed by 52%) and astrology (used by 48%). News updates are subscribed by 44% of mobile users (quite encouraging).

- Unlimited Internet access & SMS value added services are the two most critical factors when Indians decide on choosing their mobile service.

It appears that in India, mobile Internet is going to grow!!!

Techtree reports India’s mobile subscriber base 391.76 million, despite the push, the growth in the rural sectors is slow. With a subscriber base of 282 million, urban centers account for 72% of all mobile users in the country. (Thanks @Sri for the link)

This article reports that Hindustan Times, a major Indian newspaper is changing it’s look and reporting style to cater to India’s youth population.

Sanjoy Narayan, editor-in-chief, HT, “Relationship and the people’s approach to consumption of news has changed. They get news faster from television, Internet, mobile phones (through SMS alerts), social media networks and newsletters. The reader wakes up in the morning not to know ‘what’ but ‘why’. While we deal with this ‘why’, it has lead to the overall restaging of the product.”

Interesting….is it only HT or other newspapers are taking the similar route???

Yesterday, I went to DC to watch the fireworks for July 4 celebrations. I go to DC very frequently, but yesterday I had very unique experiences. First, while I was going to DC, a girl walked up to me at the metro station and said that she really liked my top I  was wearing. We started talking and it turned out that our destination was similar. She is born and raised here but her parents are from Pakistan. We exchanged numbers and decided to meet again.

My second stop was to go with a friend to another friends place and watch the fireworks from his balcony. It was an eclectic gathering. I met a lot of people young and old, of different nationalities and faith. It was quite interesting to talk to people there. Almost everyone had a story to tell. One lady told me an interesting story about an Indian girl who came to America to do her bachelors and then stayed here. She talked about her emotional struggle to settle down here. Another man asked me about my dissertation project and wanted to know about the findings. He was from USAID, he wanted to know how mobile phones can improve the life of young people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Then there was an artist, who complimented me on my outfit. She really liked the way I had put the whole ensemble together – my earrings and the top. At the party there were at least 3 – 4 people who made the same comment.

Then I was walking down the road and a couple getting into a car, made the same comment about my outfit. It was really strange and exciting to hear so many compliments in one night about what I was wearing. A little bit of fashionable clothing is indeed a great way to start a conversation or to get people’s attention. It is a way to connect with people. Yet I think today fashion has lost that attribute of connection, a sense of community and belonging. It’s become more of a commercial medium.

And then the most amazing coincidence happened. I was waiting for the metro. It was past midnight. I was sleepy and tired. I was in transit, changing from one metro to another. The metro came and went by, it didn’t stop. Almost everyone who ran to catch, sighed and stared at one another in helplessness. Another was after almost 20 min. I still needed to travel at least an hour before I could reach home. I asked the young American girl standing in front of me where she was going. Lo and behold, she was actually going to the same apartment building as mine. In the next 20 min, we introduced ourselves and exchanged our frustrations about the metro. I even managed a short interview of 5 min. of her social/ mobile medis usage. She then offered to give me a ride home since she was driving from the metro station. On our way home, we just couldn’t keep our eyes open. We slept the whole way, she gave me a ride home. Towards the end, I asked her if she liked Indian food. If so, I would love to have her come over. She was excited about it.

Today, we went out to Indian restaurant for dosas and fixed a date for another dinner. What an interesting day!!!