A study on teen girls' peer group culture using mobile phones

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A mobile phone, theses days, comes as a necessity in our daily life more than just a communication tool. A variety of new cultural developments are rapidly emerging out of the mobile phone culture, targeting mainly the teenage. Then, it is teenage girls who consume a large portion of the mobile phone service, being leaders of new culture. Therefore, it is meaningful to look into the ways they use their mobile phones for communication. The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of this process. It examines how teen girls -the main consumers and leaders in using mobile phone service consumption - create peer group trends through mobile phone usage.
So in this study, the types of communication and the features of peer group culture are looked into. To this end, in-depth group interview was conducted among the 10 Middle School students and 10 High School students in the area of Busan, all of whom are girls. They also were asked to keep record of their use of mobile phone for four days, and their correspondence of messages analyzed.
Then the findings are as follows.
They exchangedletter messaging through their mobile phone wherever whenever they wanted. And most of their communication was done as killing time stuff, while they used mostly voice messaging for their communication with their parents and family for information and asking exchange. Especially for letter messaging, they used it more than 50 times with a person on average, as easily as if they were having conversation with the person. They used their mobile phone all the time except bed time.
Through the development and utilization of Emotext, teen girls are engaged in a process of self-identify creation which is, in part, an expression of a desire to distinguish themselves from the 'older generation.' Emotext usage also defines social boundaries: those unable to decode the meaning of Emotext symbols and markers are outside the user's communication system and ultimately beyond the text message creator's realm of experience.
Creating, utilizing and circulating Emotext and Emoticon is a popular trend. It is also a demonstration of consumptive behavior and a social process for developing a new culture. Our research into teen behavior with a focus on consumption and peer group culture generation indicates text message eventsare important social tools for shaping and maintaining relationships. As a communication tool, text messages can also be used to define peer group relationships through the process of exclusion by creating a closed space; those unable to decode the content are separated from the group.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Introduction
• Study Background
• Study Methodology
• Conclusion
• References
• Abstract