Introduction

The introduction of a mobile has dramatically changed the way we access

knowledge, assign time and communicate with others. Such shifts have
important personal and societal consequences. Throughout our study, we
concentrate on one of these implications; the effects of mobile use on the
nature of face-to-face social experiences. It is well known that the amount
and nature of social experiences play a crucial role in the emotional well-
being of individuals. They claim that the intrusiveness of a mobile, arising
from the control of portability and communication, decreases the frequency
of face-to-face social experiences and, as a result, their importance in terms
of happiness and well-being.

The mobile subsumes a broad variety of technology inside a single

computer. It can at the same time fulfill the urge to make a phone call, take
a snapshot, pay a bill, listen to music, view a film, access the Internet, talk
via social networks and, more importantly, have fun. Many of these
functions have greatly changed and streamlined existence. However, the
very fact that these activities can be carried out anywhere, has made this
technology more intrusive than any other. Although it may be claimed that
smartphones also rendered things simpler for citizens to sustain their
intimate interactions and perform their responsibilities, observational data
and research suggest that people frequently ignore others with whom they
communicate socially whilst opting to engage in their mobile and link to
"only others."

In the case of a mobile, also in silent mode, there is a clear sense of the need
to be actively linked. This state of isolation diverts away from face-to-face
social encounters. The ensuing cycle of relational separation includes the
detachment from immediate partnerships. As a result, given the presence of
a variety of mobile behaviours involving communications with others, the
ultimate function of the mobile may be assumed to play a detrimental
moderating function in the relationship between face-to-face social
experiences and subjective well-being.

Literature Review
Positives of Smartphone/Social Media Interaction

Neutral Stand: The relation between social internet use and loneliness is a
popular research area, considering the appalling spread of loneliness in
modern society across all age groups. Rebecca Nowland, Elizabeth A.
Necka, and John T. Cacioppo had explored the existing literature and
proposed a theoretical model on the correlation. They propose that there is
a bidirectional and dynamic relationship between loneliness and social
media. This effect also takes into consideration the extent and usage of
social technologies to enhance existing social relationships. Bi directional
nature reveals that social media enhances loneliness of people who use it to
displace face-to-face meetings, formally called "social displacement theory".
But loneliness of people can be reduced if social technologies are used to
enhance existing relationships and find new ones. Dynamic nature reveals
that how the social media is being used by lonely people is different. They
are more prone to cyber bullying, compulsive internet use etc.

Negatives of Smartphone/Social Media Interaction

Initial desirability for social media and its effects on interpersonal

relationships, time invested in social media are some of the factors explored
by few researchers. (Lauren Hill and Zane Zheng, 2017). The more time
people spend on social media, the less time they would prefer giving to
offline interpersonal meetings. The initial desirability for social media is
also a seen by users as a solitary activity and not as a "social" activity. This
has a negative psychological consequences. Authors conducted a perceptual
judgement experiment that included four types of icons (i) social media (ii)
singular (iii) social (iv) control with 138 participants. They analyzed the
data and found that factors closely associated to initial desirability of social
media are (i) desire for social isolation (ii) intensity of social media usage
(iii) perception of effect of social media on interpersonal life. Social
interactions rarely take place through social media as against the popular
opinion that it is the place where people look for companionship and make
new connections. People who have high desirability for social media tend to
spend more time online. They might be forming two kinds of connections,
one with known or distant friends and para social relationships, the one
with celebrities and public figures. Second kind of connection suggests
loneliness. Depression is not found to be in correlation with desire for
social media. It is widely documented that the quantity and quality of social
interactions play a key role for subjective well-being (by Ateca-Amestoy,
Aguilar, & Moro-Egido, 2014; Bruni & Stanca, 2008; Becchetti, Trovato, &
Londono Bedoya, 2011) further on this argument Valentina Rotondi, Luca
Stanca, Miriam Tomasuolo in theri paper “Connecting alone: Smartphone
use, quality of social interactions and well-being” try to test the hypothesis
that the intrusiveness of the smartphone, arising from its portability and
connectivity power, reduces the quality of face-to-face social interactions
and, as a consequence, their value in terms of satisfaction and well-being.
For their empirical study cross-sectional data from the Multipurpose
Survey on Households: Aspects of Daily Life (ISTAT, 2015) was used which
is collected through pen and paper method from 50,000 individuals of
Italy. Proxy variables were selected from the available data points for the
required variables from usage of smartphones to face to face interactions.
Mathematical relationship was found out for the same which helped in the
test of hypothesis. Considering the assumptions and endogeneities the
paper concludes that the use of the smartphone negatively affects the
quality of time spent with friends.

Does the Internet Increase, Decrease, or Supplement Social Capital?

This study tries to establish the relationship and enforce the fact that when
the Internet engages people primarily in social activities, then even more
than television, its immersiveness can turn people away from community,
organizational and political involvement, and domestic life, with proper
evidence. The study states that when people use the Internet to
communicate and coordinate with friends, relatives, and organizations—
near and far—then it is a tool for building and maintaining social capital.
Decreasing interpersonal relationships and decreased social participation
are observed to be stemming from the Internet which provides tools for
those already involved to increase their participation. Yet, at a time when
networked individualism reduces group social cohesion, extensive
involvement with the Internet apparently exposes participants to situations
that weaken their sense of community online. This study also shows that
internet usage is not a uniform activity. People engage in social and asocial
activities when online. On one hand, the Internet is used as a tool for
solitary activities that keep people from engaging with their kin and in their
communities. On the other hand, not all online activities compete with
offline interactions. People might read newspapers or search for
information regardless of whether they do this online or offline. The time
people save because they shop online may be spent offline socializing with
family and friends.

Smartphone Usage and Gratification in the age of Narcissism - Alan J Reid

and Chelsea N.Thomas

This study was done on 43 undergraduate students at a mid-sized

university, it examined the smartphone usage and the gratification received
from it. Universities have the highest percentage of smartphone users
( around 83%) and most users use their smartphones for a wide variety of
activities such as productivity, communication, entertainment, information
seeking and connectedness. Most of the phone users switch between
different activities and satisfy their varied needs and wants. There is
empirical evidence to prove that there is a sort of overdependence on one’s
smartphones. Emotional, Cognitive and social consequences are found by
people who are overly dependent on smartphones. Text necks and
computer vision syndromes are some examples of the physical side effects.
The study finds a significant correlation between the smartphone usage
behaviour and narcissistic trait of exhibitionism, one theory is that in
undergraduate circles the smartphone is a prop to show the status and this
satisfies their fashion status. It serves as a sort of cultural currency that
screams one’s social class.

Blending Digital and Face-to-Face Interaction Using a Co-Located Social

Media App in Class

Govaerts S. et al in their paper analyse real world use cases of a social

media app, SpeakUp, used to improve classroom interaction. SpeakUp
enables creation of chat rooms specific to the location in which users can
contribute anonymously. After conducting a detailed analysis, they found
out that the use of social media applications dependent on the geographical
location is positively related with the in-class interaction. They performed
an experiment with a control group in place and concluded that the use of
such applications is positively related to the perceived learning outcomes of
the students. The success of the blend of this interaction provided them
with insights which they go on to share as to how can this interaction can be
made even more fruitful for the instructors and the class participants.

Explaining Employee Job Performance: The Role of Online and Offline

Workplace Communication Networks

Zhang X. and Venkatesh V. examine the role of technology into social

network theory to gain a conceptual understanding of employee job
performance. They arrive at four different ties, combining the direct and
indirect ties in both online and offline interaction. They arrive at a
conclusion that both the online and offline ties act as complementary
resources that interact to have an impact on the employee job performance.
They performed a field study looking at more than 100 employees in a
telecommunications giant. The paper strengthens the social network theory
which says that the success of an employee depends on his/her networks, it
does so by incorporating technology into it. The online interactions also
have an impact combined with the offline interactions and are not directly
opposed to each other.

Connecting alone: Smartphone use, quality of social interactions and well-

being

This paper investigates the role played by the smartphone for the quality of
social interactions and subjective well-being. The authors argue that, due to
its intrusiveness, the smartphone reduces the quality of face-to-face
interactions and, as a consequence, their positive impact on well-being.
Hypothesis is tested in a large and representative sample of Italian
individuals. The results indicate that time spent with friends is worth less,
in terms of life satisfaction, for individuals who use the smartphone. This
finding is robust to the use of instrumental variables estimation to deal with
possible endogeneity. It is also shown that, the positive association between
time spent with friends and satisfaction with friends is less strong for
individuals who use the smartphone. They have taken their data from
repeated cross-sectional data from the Multipurpose Survey on
Households: Aspects of Daily Life (ISTAT, 2015), a large sample survey that
covers the resident population in private households annually since 1993.
Face-to-face interviews were carried out with Paper and Pencil Interview
(PAPI) technique on a different sample of about 50,000 individuals (about
24,000 households) per year. The target population consists of all private
households throughout the national territory. The selection of households
is based on a two-stage sampling design, with municipalities as primary
sampling units and households as secondary sampling units (Peracchi &
Viviano, 2001). Municipalities are stratified by population size, with large
municipalities being always included and smaller municipalities being
selected random

How Smartphones Are Killing Conversation. A book titled “Reclaiming

Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age 1st Edition”

MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle, author of the new book Reclaiming

Conversation, argues that we lose our ability to have deeper, more
spontaneous conversations with others, changing the nature of our social
interactions in alarming ways. Sherry says that conversation is the most
human and humanizing thing that we do. It’s where empathy is born, where
intimacy is born. It’s where we learn about other people. But, without
meaning to, without having made a plan, we’ve actually moved away from
conversation because of the extensive and dependant use of smartphones
Facts pointed out are: Eighty-nine percent of Americans say that during
their last social interaction, they took out a phone, and 82 percent said that
it deteriorated the conversation they were in. In a study, when a cell phone
is put into a social interaction, it does two things: First, it decreases the
quality of what you talk about, because you talk about things where you
wouldn’t mind being interrupted, and, secondly, it decreases the empathic
connection that people feel toward each other. So, even something as
simple as going to lunch and putting a cell phone on the table decreases the
emotional importance of what people are willing to talk about, and it
decreases the connection that the two people feel toward one another. If
multiplied by all of the times people have their cell phones on the table
when they have coffee with someone or are at breakfast with their child or
are talking with their partner, they’re doing this to each other 10, 20, 30
times a day.
Smartphones and Face-to-Face Interaction: Digital Cross-Talk During
Encounters in Everyday Life by Brad Ictech
Using data collected from focus groups and non participant observations,
this article explores how and why cross-talk by way of smartphone affects
face-to-face encounters. The findings show there are three types of digital
cross-talk: 1.exclusive, 2.semi-exclusive, and 3.collaborative. Furthermore,
it was found that digital cross-talk can either facilitate or disrupt the
expressive order of an encounter. Semi-exclusive and collaborative digital
cross-talk were found to facilitate encounters. Exclusive digital cross-talk
was found to disrupt or have little influence on encounters, depending on
whether or not interlocutors successfully engaged in a corrective process,
an avoidance process, or aggressive face-work.

Methodology

Research was first undertaken using a literature review where we analysed

the various models available for predicting the correlation and comparison
between social interaction and usage of smartphones. While many studies
dwelled deeper on human psychology and different reasons for increased
usage of smart phones. Most of the studies concluded a positive correlation,
thus further enhancing the purpose of our study.

Our observational study was carried out using IIMK students as our
sample. We observe students and their usage of smart phones during class
hours and during break hours. We also observed at which point students
tend to get distracted during class hours and start using their smart phones,
the time duration for which they use etc. Also, we observed the behaviour of
students when their phones are taken away (during quizzes) and how
students tend to indulge in increased social interaction. We observed
students talking to each other, singing and playing games (without their
phones). These observations helped us develop a questionnaire which is the
third step in our study.

Post our observational study, we moved on to our survey, which forms the
main part of the data collected and analysis conducted. Our questionnaire
consisted of a set of questions to understand the psychological reason
behind usage of smart phones and its relation to social behaviour. We also
had another set of questions where students were asked to imagine that
their phones were being taken away and their responses to various
situations. The responses helped us form our analysis and reach concrete
conclusions.