Teens and Technology: A Food Court Ethnography
In such a busy and technology-savvy age, it is rare to cross paths with someone who doesn’t own a computer and even more unlikely to meet someone without cell phone. This rule used to be limited to working adults, but now teens are just as likely, if not more, to own and have knowledge about the technology. The question is how necessary is this technology in the daily lives of these teenagers, and how does using it affect them? To find the answers, I ventured to the mall to observe the youth in their natural habitat and conduct a full ethnography to learn more about the topic.
Part I: Description
The Setting
I decided that the most appropriate location for such a study would be the place I’m most likely to see teenagers interacting with others their age along with their families. For this reason, I chose to go to the Carolina Place Mall food court in Pineville, North Carolina. In hope of catching the dinner rush, I arrived at 6:00 p.m. and, after finding an ideal location where I could see much of the food court from my seat, I began my observation by 6:25 p.m. I stayed in the same position the duration of the observation, and everything I saw and heard was recorded at that location on the outside of the food court. The observation lasted close to sixty minutes, but I did wait until my last subjects left to end my observation in order to record as much as possible.
What Was Observed: Couples
My first subjects were two masculine girls between 16 and 17 years old and presumably on a date, as they were sitting close to one another and displaying affection. These girls entered at 6:25. During this time, the girls ate and talked, laughing often and never checking their phones. About twelve minutes into their meal, one of the girls pulled out her phone to take a picture of herself and her date, but the device was put away immediately after checking that the picture was satisfactory. After three more minutes, the girls got up, threw away their trash, and left without their cell phones visible.
The next couple to enter was a boy and a girl, the boy of clear Hispanic heritage, both between 16 and 17 years old. Again, the couple next to one another on the same side of the table and displayed signs of affection. As soon as the couple was seated, the girl took out her phone and sat is on the table in front of her right side. The two ate their food as the boy seemed to initiate most of the conversation. As he talked the girl continued to eat and nod occasionally. She also unlocked and checked her phone an average of every two minutes without ever lifting it from the table. When the boy stopped talking, the two were silent for a while. When he seemed to ask her a question, she replied in incoherent sentences. The nature of her monologue seemed almost gossip-like in nature. The appeared uninterested as his eyes began to wander, but he never checked his phone. The couple stayed a total of 25 minutes, about ten minutes of which the girl spent on her cell phone.
There were similar trends in the other couples. In the next couple, a boy and a girl between 17 and 19, the girl was on her phone about five of the fifteen minutes they were there, the boy one out of the fifteen (when the girl left to use the restroom). A couple of hispanic boys between the ages of 16-19 spent their whole visit eating and talking, with perhaps thirty seconds of the sixteen minutes they stayed there dedicated to their handheld devices.
What I Observed: Groups
The first three groups I observed were very similar: two groups of three girls ages 14-16. In each group, the girls seemed to be very engaged in their dialogue, as they laughed often, had varying facial expressions, and would lean in to tell secrets. In every group, however, there was one girl that would initially pull out her phone about five minutes into the session, and that girl would continue to check her phone regularly every 45-60 seconds. These girls would eventually disengage themselves from the conversation and stop participating, except to show their companions something on their phones. When this would occur, the other girls in the group would pull out their phones for about 45 seconds. Between the three groups, each had one girl that averaged five to seven minutes on her phone out of the average of seventeen minutes the group was there. The others averaged forty seconds on the phone.
A group of four girls 16-17 years old passed through the food court briefly to get food, but they did not sit down. The girls were all in matching shirts, presumable all members of the same school or church group. As they passed, all four of them were on their phones: three texting, one talking. Of the five minutes they were in the court, all of them spent five minutes on their cell phones.
A group of two girls and three boys arrived, what I assume was a double date plus one. A boy sat down first and, as he was alone, scrolled on his phone until the others arrived. When they did, his phone was put away and his girl pulled out hers for about 1 minute then zipped it in her jacket pocket. All of the others talked and laughed, but that girl was quiet, regularly checking her phone for at least 45 seconds every five seconds. The others only looked at a screen when the girl would show them something. Of the thirty minutes the group was there, that girl spent fifteen on the phone, the others averaging two minutes.
I observed one family in the food court, the parents about age 40 and the two boys, one of elementary school age and the other about 13. The family was there for fourteen minutes. The whole time the mother read to the younger boy, the father made a phone call, and the teen played on his cell phone. The two males were still using their devices when they got up to leave, and there was no communication among the family besides the mother and younger boy.
Part II: Observations
Insights
I was able to come to some interesting conclusions from these observations. First, smaller groups, like couples, are less likely to spend their time together on their phones. When the number increases to 3 or more, the likelihood of there being one instigator is much higher. The instigators are usually the ones least involved in the conversations, perhaps because of the effect technology has on their communication. Also, in a date setting, males are much less likely to pick up their phones, perhaps out of respect for their partners. The issue of technology may also be a cultural or family issue. The participants of an ethnicity used their phones much less, while the boy whose father was on the phone was using his device the entire time. The teens with the more pricey phones, like the girl on a date with her hispanic male, were also much more likely to text during their meal.
Application
This information could be used to build an IMC campaign for cell phones or phone companies quite easily. First, the companies should market family plans to the parents that already have high cell phone usage. As I saw in my observation, teens are more likely to use their cell phones often if their parents have similar habits. The brands can also focus less on the Hispanic population, perhaps providing plans of less data usage if the users are Hispanic males. The companies could use these efforts to direct their marketing to young females instead. Advertising directed towards teenage girls would be very effective, promoting the nicer phones with a more extensive contract to hook the girls and their parents into spending more per month. To cater to the issue of cell phone usage increasing in larger groups, phone companies could have deals with circles of friends, perhaps offering a discount for every friend contact in your circle in order to encourage such behavior. In this way, phone companies could use my ethnography on teens and technology to boost their numbers and grow their businesses.