著者

土橋 臣吾

出版者

日本マス・コミュニケーション学会

雑誌

マス・コミュニケーション研究 (ISSN:13411306)

巻号頁・発行日

no.87, pp.17-35, 2015-07-31

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The aim of this paper is to study today's information environments surrounding cellphones from local relationships between cellphones and humans. To this end, the authors first examined the characteristics of cellphones as objects - more specifically, the meaning of the mobility and variability of cellphones. Then the authors tackled the following issues: (1) developing a theoretical perspective for analyzing relationships between mobile and variable technology and humans; and (2) studying contemporary technological trends regarding design among agencies of cellphone users. To solve the first issue, the authors first examined the framework for studying the adoption of technologies in homes (fixed space) for comparison and showed the limitations of the framework with a view to developing a perspective for analyzing relationships between the mobile and variable cellphone technology and humans. The authors' study revealed that to analyze relationships between cellphones and humans, it is necessary to assume a structure of collaboration between technology and humans rather than confrontation between the two and that humans who use cellphones can be understood as bundles of agencies that continue to change in the structure. To solve the second issue, based on the perspective developed in the above analysis, the authors studied how agencies of cellphone users are being developed and designed in the following two technological trends in recent years: the introduction of ubiquitous technology and the widespread use of applications. The authors' findings revealed that while these two technological trends are separate from each other, they are similar in that they both capture people's activities and experiences in great detail and create information environments in accordance with the flow of everyday life. As a result, all areas of humans' daily lives will become targets of development and design. Based on these findings, the authors finally examined how they can view technology from a critical perspective in such information environments. The results of their study led them to believe that it becomes very difficult to view technology from a critical perspective in a structure that supports collaboration between technology and humans. In order to overcome such difficulty, it is necessary to change the notion of critique from what is projected from outside to what reorganizes an information environment from within its inner structure.