Domestication of Mobile Phone in Family Life: A Grounded-Theory Study in Isfahan City

Mobile technology has been turned into one of the most important aspects of everyday life. It is considered as the most controversial technology that has become the integral part of mainstream family, and has led to noticeable changes in norms, values, and structures of the family. While there is a wealth of research into family relationships and mobile phone separately, minimal attention is paid to the mobile phone’s interplay with the context of family life. Mobile phone provides people with a life style which is accompanied by emerging limitations and opportunities. Individualism and privacy are two important outcomes of mobile phone use that affect the family the most. In this research, we study the process of mobile phone adaptation in the family by concentrating on the relationship between parents-children and husband-wife in Isfahan City.
According to the last census provided by the main Iranian telecommunication company, the penetration rate of mobile phone in Iran is 115%. Also, more than half of the mobile SIM card holders use Smartphone and are engaged in social messaging apps. In Isfahan, as stated by the official news agencies, the rate of mobile phone penetration is 88.5%. Although Isfahan has a rich traditional and religious heritage, nowadays it is experiencing considerable changes in the realm of family life. According to the comparison made by the central registration office of Isfahan, the rate of divorce has increased, the rate of fertility has declined, the average age of marriage has increased, and the marriage rate has fallen in 2016.
In the current era, family life is changing so drastically due to the external and internal factors that some theoreticians talk about “the death of the family”. ICTs and especially mobile phones are an important part of the process of family change. Although normally people bring mobile phone to their family as a device of caring and controlling, the effects of mobile phone usage are much further.
The way a person perceives mobile phone, uses it to communicate with family members and others, and benefits from it as a source of information technology; shape the image of the person in the family. It means, family members judge each other according to the way one member uses their mobile phone.
While some may postulate that mobile phone influences are pulling family members apart, others contend that mobile phone has become an integral part of mainstream family life that can have positive as well as negative effects on family.
Family and its wellbeing is a top priority in all societies. A society will not succeed unless the family performs its functions effectively. For this reason, it is critical to discover how mobile phone may affect the process of family change.
The exploratory nature of the study requires an inductive technique used in qualitative researches. We applied grounded theory strategy, and conducted semi-structured interviews with people, including parents, couples and single adults above 16 years of age. The participants explained whether or not (and if so how) mobile phones have impacted their family life and relationships. Data was analyzed through open, axial, and selective coding and then arranged in a paradigm-based model and a narrative line. According to theoretical sampling, we selected new cases to compare with cases that have been already studied. This provides a sample with adequate cases that can lead to theoretical generalization and construction of theory. Data saturation determined the final sample. The data for the study was obtained from 42 deep interviews that lasted between 60 to 90 minutes, during December 2015 to May 2016 in Isfahan city.
Discussion of Results and Asking about the role of mobile phone in the family, respondents talk about both pleasant and unpleasant aspects of mobile phone usage. They believe mobile phone is a very useful technology to connect family members when they are away from each other. In contrast, when family members at present at home, challenges over mobile phone use arise. Here is a short summary of the main categories of the research.
At the end of coding process, we selected “the culture of mobile phone phobia” as the core category. This theme lies on two aspects. On the one hand, some of the family members worry about the negative effects of mobile phone culture on family, like wives’ fear of their husbands’ access to pornographic themes through mobile phone. On the other hand, others were afraid that mobile phone culture may limit their individual rights and liberties. For example, some respondents found it unpleasant that family members can contact them anytime and anywhere when they are not at home. The causal conditions that shape the core category include “mobile phone etiquette/anti etiquette” (mobile phone addiction and mobile phone privacy), “internal social capital of family” (trust, conversation and family rituals), and “mobile phone uses among family members” (instrumental/expressive and entertaining uses).
Contextual conditions including “gender”, “information-communication capital” (access and accessories), “value consensus” and “digital divide”; and intervening conditions such as “family structure” (power structure and demographics), and “pre/post marriage factors” shape the strategies that family members employ to manage this phenomenon. These strategies are named: “controlling cycle of mobile phone”, “preventing challenges of mobile phone use”, “digital bedroom”, and “stereotyping” (age and gender based stereotypes).
The outcomes of this process demonstrate that according to the family contexts mentioned above, mobile phone may play a role in family life in dualities of: disruptive/facilitating, integrating/ dispersive, controlling/emancipating, creating/losing the opportunities, hiding/revealing, and creating expectations/responsibilities.
Findings of this study show that as an information-communication technology, mobile phone carries a variety of meanings and implications that leads to specific conversations and interactions in families. In this process, family members experience adaptation to mobile phone culture and try to domesticate the outcomes and effects. Therefore, mobile phone is the subject of power, negotiation, norms, rules, and battles in families.