A comparative study of N-generation’s mobile phone use between the United States and Korean society

Abstract

In the midst of ongoing discussions about youths' new media use, this study examined the N-Generation's mobile phone usage, usage patterns, motives, and functional usage between the U.S. and Korean society. Both the U.S. and Korean N-Generation showed large dependence on their parents for cell phone bill payments and the pattern of mobile phone uses for social relationships was similar. The two N-Generation groups used the mobile phone frequently regardless of time and place, but their usage of wireless internet through the mobile phone device was very low. A principal component analysis of motivation resulted in five significant dimensions of mobile phone use motives: Mixed, Multimedia, Personal Integrative, Social/Mobility, and Instrumental/Social. The U.S. N-Generation showed having stronger motives than the Korean N-Generation except in Personal Integrative and Social/Mobility dimensions. Koreans had stronger motivation in Social/Mobility factor and the Personal Integrative motive was overall very weak in both groups. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses found that there were significant relationships between these motive factors, participant demographics, and mobile phone usage items, but for the U.S. group, demographic variables and motivation explained more variance of reported usage. Even with many similarities found between the two groups, it was suspected that the unique socio-cultural background of each society still influences N-Generation's mobile phone use and the two societies might be in different stages of mobile phone diffusion.